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

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.

Preparation of polycarbonate/poly(lactic acid) with improved printability and processability for fused deposition modeling

“…A double melting peak due to crystal imperfection is observed when the PTW content is over 15 phr. Therefore, PTW improves the printing performance of blends by inhibiting the crystallization of PLA and decreasing shrinkage stress, which is consistent with other works 10,18,32 . To further verify the printability, some models are successfully printed based on PC‐PLA40/PTW‐10 blend as shown in Figure 5.…”

Revealing interactions of layered polymeric materials at solid-liquid interface for building solvent compatibility charts for 3D printing applications

“…Another shortcoming of POM, its low adhesion to the building plate, can be overcome by applying a specific adhesive coating (glue). The shrinkage of PP, although considerable for bigger objects 55 , was negligible, but its adhesion to the building platform was too low even with the adhesive coating. Due to this complication, FDM with PP was carried out on a 3 mm thick PP sheet firmly attached to the 3D printer build plate.…”

Flame Retardant Polypropylenes: A Review

“…This growing demand reflects the importance of PP for applications where low density, hardness, high flexural modulus, and chemical resistance are needed [ 7 , 8 ]. Moreover, PP is a low-cost plastic capable of being processed with various methods, e.g., extrusion, thermoforming, and injection molding [ 9 , 10 ]. Therefore, a huge number of PP products, including fibers, films, sheets, textiles, pipes, and profiles, have been developed and used in the automotive, electrical and electronic, packaging, and construction industries [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”