3D Printing of Polymer-Based Composite Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies offer several potential sources of value compared to traditional production approaches of polymers due to their ability to produce almost any 3D shape, no need for moulds or fixed tooling, and ability to eliminate time-consuming fabrication operations and toolmaking. By enabling the on-demand production of items from digital files, this technology reduces the need for spare-part inventories, etc.

This Special Issue of Polymers (“3D Printing of Polymer-Based Composite Materials”) invites contributions addressing several aspects of additive manufacturing of polymer-based composite materials, including:

• Mechanical and physicochemical characterization of 3D-printed components such as tensile and flexural strength, shear strength, digital image correlation, microscale properties, SEM, DMA, TGA, etc.;
• Recycling and 3D printing (domestic and industrial wastes);
• 3D printing of short and continuous fibre-reinforced polymer composites;
• Optimization of 3D printing parameters;
• 3D printing of multi-materials;
• 3D printing of soft polymers;
• Degradation and ageing process on 3D-printed polymer-based composite materials in different environments;
• Numerical modelling and simulation of additive manufacturing processes;
• Process monitoring and control;
• Postprocessing in 3D printing of polymer composites;
• Analysis of fracture behaviour of 3D-printed materials in mode I and II, and mixed mode;
• Nondestructive testing in 3D printing such as thermography, radiography, acoustic emission, ultrasonic, etc.

Dr. Pouyan Ghabezi
Dr. Noel M. Harrison
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.