3D printing and molten wire deposition process: background
3D/4D Printing of Thermoplastic Composite Materials

The 3D printing timeline is divided into five main stages: firstly, a digital file is generated from a CAD model of the desired part. The CAD model can be created in one of two ways: by drawing the part using CAD software, or using a scanning technique such as a 3D scanner. The digital model is then transferred to a file, the most commonly used format being STL (Standard Tesselation Language). The .stl file is then loaded into 3D printing software called a "slicer". This software "slices" the digital model layer...