3D Printing of Polymer Composites

Dear Colleagues,

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, or additive manufacturing (AM), has revolutionized the ways in which we manufacture structures, with advantages such as customized shapes, fast prototyping, minimized waste, and lower energy costs than traditional techniques. It has been employed for structural fabrication, with dimensions ranging from nano- to meter-scale, and is widely applied in areas such as optics, acoustics, electronics, mechanics, thermodynamics, biology, and medicine. The three-dimensional printing of polymer composite materials has attracted special attention due to its promise in improving, modifying, and diversifying the properties of generic materials by introducing reinforcements. Although it is still at an early stage, composite 3D printing is gaining traction within the manufacturing industry. It provides a quick and automated approach to manufacturing composite parts, which used to be labor-intensive and required highly skilled operators. The tool-free fabrication technique for composites not only makes the process of fabricating composite parts much faster and less costly, but also opens the possibility of multifunctional composite structures for new applications.  The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the latest achievements in computational design and fabrication, process optimization, intelligent measurement and control, machine learning-based 3D printing, polymer composite design, multifunctional smart polymers, and their fascinating applications.

Dr. Hao Wang
Dr. Yi Xiong
Dr. Guo Dong Goh
Guest Editors

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