Material extrusion-based additive manufacturing of polypropylene: A review on how to improve dimensional inaccuracy and warpage

Martin Spörk, Clemens Holzer, Joamin Gonzalez-Gutierrez

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Material extrusion-based additive manufacturing (ME-AM) is an emerging processing technique that is characterized by the selective deposition of thermoplastic filaments in a layer-by-layer manner based on digital part models. Recently, it has attracted considerable attention, as this technique offers manifold benefits over conventional manufacturing technologies. However, to meet the challenges of complex industrial applications, certain shortcomings of ME-AM still need to be overcome. A case in point is the limited amount of semicrystalline thermoplastics, which are still not established as reliable, commercial filament materials. Particularly, polypropylene (PP) offers attractive properties that are unique among the ME-AM material portfolio. This review describes the current approaches of fabricating PP components by ME-AM. Both commercial and scientific strategies to make PP 3D-printable are elaborated and compared. As dimensional issues are especially problematic for PP, a comprehensive section of this review focuses on the strategies developed for mitigating warpage for PP parts fabricated by ME-AM.
Original languageEnglish
Article number48454
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of applied polymer science
Volume137.2020
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 15 Oct 2019

Keywords

  • 3D-printing
  • additive manufacturing
  • dimensional accuracy
  • polypropylene
  • warpage

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