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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing Natural composite filaments for 3D-Print

Some of these developed systems include material the extruder as more extrusion force will be required. On
extrusion (Figure 3A), vat photopolymerization the other hand, filament materials with increasingly low
(Figure 3B), binder jetting process, material jetting, viscosity can lead to a lack of precision in the deposited
powder bed fusion (Figure 3C), sheet lamination, and layers as they will be difficult to control due to excessive
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directed energy deposition techniques. The fused flowability. Hence, achieving the optimum characteristics
deposition modeling (FDM) process is one noteworthy in filament material is key to securing the best results in
technique under the material extrusion category of AM, AM.
which has gained significant interest from industries
and mass consumers in recent years. Besides their ease A classification chart for commonly used filament
of implementation, reliability, and affordability, this materials in the FDM process is outlined in Figure 5.
material extrusion-based process uses ready-made and As evidenced by this figure, most developed filament
off-the-shelf filament reels as input material, as shown materials for the FDM process are of a non-biodegradable
in Figure 4. nature. The specifications, characteristics, and application
of commonly used non-biodegradable filament polymer
The basis of AM, which is conceived from the layer- materials developed in recent years for the FDM process
by-layer material deposition technique, predominantly are given in Table 1. Table 2, on the other hand, displays
depends on its material characteristics. Some of these the specification, characteristics, and application of the
notable physical and mechanical material characteristics, few biodegradable filament materials that have been
which are prerequisites for AM, include viscosity, density,
coefficient of thermal expansion, melting point, durability, investigated in the literature.
stiffness, ultimate strength, and ultimate strain, among Even though the material characteristics account for
other factors. 25-27 For instance, 3D-printed filament the main factor for optimum performance in 3D-printed
materials with high viscosity will increase the load on parts, other factors pertaining to the printing settings

A B C

Figure 3. Developed additive manufacturing technologies and corresponding input material to suit the needs of specific engineering fields, namely the
(A) material extrusion also known as fused deposition modeling, (B) vat photopolymerization, and (C) powder bed fusion techniques 6

Volume 4 Issue 1 (2025) 3 doi: 10.36922/msam.8533