3D Printing Materials

Building on the success of stereolithography, other additive manufacturing technologies emerged, while research continued to evolve, addressing current concerns and focusing on more forward-looking (and profitable) aspects:

• demonstrate that additive manufacturing is part of an industrial process that reduces time-to-market;

• finding new applications for technology: from children’s toys to organ printing, from nanomanufacturing to construction, from sand to living matter;

• Innovating to maintain momentum and ensure long-term success: an incremental approach to new processes and, above all, materials—including metal and multi-material composites;

• conduct proof-of-concept tests and communicate the results; initial prototypes are developed in lean structures with modest investment but a high degree of creativity;

• to manufacture finished products in as few steps as possible.

These elements actually conceal a key factor: the material itself. A material chosen at random cannot normally be used to create an object with a standard commercial 3D printer; there is, in fact, a specific—or nearly so—relationship between the material and the process…

With the rapid development of additive manufacturing technologies, the field has evolved from prototyping to the advanced manufacturing of functional components in industry. The intellectualization and industrialization of additive manufacturing processes and equipment could have created bottlenecks for industrial applications, but the technology continues to grow (at a rate of approximately 20% per year).

Materials, in various forms, play a key role in all additive manufacturing processes due to their inherent properties and controllable performance characteristics. Metals, polymers, ceramics, and natural materials are thus used in various processes, either in their pure form or as composites or alloys, to achieve tailored or enhanced properties, or even lower costs compared to their current applications. This diversity has given rise to a wide range of materials suitable for additive manufacturing.

Given this, discussing 3D materials in a “broad” sense poses a significant challenge for a reasonably structured presentation. This is why the author has chosen to begin this article with a historical perspective, focusing on the invention of stereolithography—the interaction of light and matter and spatially resolved polymerization—which centers on a single family of materials (polymerizable resins). Indeed, this foundational knowledge offers several advantages:

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