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Review
. 2021 Sep 15;13(18):3101.
doi: 10.3390/polym13183101.

3D/4D Printing of Polymers: Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), and Stereolithography (SLA)

Abishek Kafle  1 , Eric Luis  2 , Raman Silwal  1 , Houwen Matthew Pan  3 , Pratisthit Lal Shrestha  1 , Anil Kumar Bastola  4
Affiliations
Review

3D/4D Printing of Polymers: Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), and Stereolithography (SLA)

Abishek Kafle et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing is a digital manufacturing process and offers virtually limitless opportunities to develop structures/objects by tailoring material composition, processing conditions, and geometry technically at every point in an object. In this review, we present three different early adopted, however, widely used, polymer-based 3D printing processes; fused deposition modelling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), and stereolithography (SLA) to create polymeric parts. The main aim of this review is to offer a comparative overview by correlating polymer material-process-properties for three different 3D printing techniques. Moreover, the advanced material-process requirements towards 4D printing via these print methods taking an example of magneto-active polymers is covered. Overall, this review highlights different aspects of these printing methods and serves as a guide to select a suitable print material and 3D print technique for the targeted polymeric material-based applications and also discusses the implementation practices towards 4D printing of polymer-based systems with a current state-of-the-art approach.

Keywords: 3D printing; 4D printing; fused deposition modelling; polymers; selective laser sintering; stereolithography.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Classification of AM techniques based on the type of base materials used and the scope of the current review as highlighted (FDM, SLS, and SLA). The 3D printing image is taken from [72].
Figure 2
Figure 2
The workflow of the 3D printing process.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of the process parameters of three different print methods: FDM (left), SLS (right), and SLA (middle).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Process parameters for SLS printing, redrawn from [105].
Figure 5
Figure 5
A pictographic summary of the various properties of print materials demanded for successful printability via FDM, SLS, and SLA 3D printing.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Illustration of a dynamic DSC curve of a polymer. (b) Comparison of a commercial injection moulding PA12 grade and commercial PA12 for SLS processing, adapted from [168].
Figure 7
Figure 7
A graphical overview of the mechanical properties of 3D printed parts for a few commercially available materials, data are taken from the respective datasheet available on the supplier’s website. Tensile (green coloured) and flexural (red coloured) properties are plotted, the upper graph is strength, and the lower graph is the modulus of corresponding properties of FDM and SLS and SLA printed parts.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) Illustration of flexural and tensile loading and (b) definition of specimen orientation, redrawn from [16].
Figure 9
Figure 9
3D printing and 4D printing and their basic differences, redrawn from [259].
Figure 10
Figure 10
Material modification and requirement to develop magneto-active 4D structures via FDM, SLS, and SLA techniques. (a) Composite filament formation method (adapted from [253]), (b) composite powder formation method (adapted from [254]), (c) composite ink formation method (adapted from [256]), (d) examples of thermal and chemical properties of modified PLA-iron oxide composite filaments for FDM (adapted from [265]), (e) examples of thermal properties of modified PA12-iron oxide composite powder for SLS (adapted from [254]), and (f) rheological properties of acrylate iron oxide composite ink for DLP (adapted from [255]).
Figure 11
Figure 11
Examples of shape-morphing phenomenon demonstrated by 4D printed magnetic structures. (a) 4D effect of the flower-like biomimetic magnetic actuator under an external magnetic field, produced via FDM printing [253], (b) 4D effect of a gripper under an external magnetic field, produced via SLS printing [266], and (c) 4D effect of flower-like structure and folding of 2D to the 3D structure under an external magnetic field, produced via DLP printing [255].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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