3D Printing Polymers: Design and Applications
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 23
Special Issue Editor
Interests: engineering design; 3D printing; additive manufacturing; lattices; tissue scaffolds; finite element analysis; mechanics; polymers; computation; medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Emerging 3D printing processes are enabling the use of polymers with broad capabilities for enhancing engineered designs fabricated through layer-by-layer additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing processes include extrusion, photopolymer, and powder printing approaches that allow for the creation of customizable and complex designs using polymer materials such as thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers, biomaterials, and more. Polymer printing offers a wide range of functional capabilities with efficient fabrication to deliver high-performance designs. The technology is gaining prominence in areas where lightweight structures and customizable functionality are important, such as medical, aerospace, and consumer product applications.
Although 3D printing techniques have advanced substantially, research questions remain in understanding the intersections of materials, processing, and configuration decisions for design applications. There is a continued need for investigating polymer properties through computational and experimental characterization, especially when considering specialized needs such as sustainable or biocompatible materials. For polymer printing processes, there are numerous variables in processing parameters that require further study to determine influence on the final quality and properties of parts. The configuration of a printed part, such as the patterning of lattice-type structures, can greatly alter functionality when fine-tuning parts for specified applications. Further investigation in the materials, processing, and configuration of polymer 3D printed parts is essential for driving fundamental research discovery towards high-performance engineering applications.
This Special Issue invites papers for design and applications of polymers using 3D printing technologies. Relevant application areas include (but are not limited to) medical, aerospace, automotive, electronics, foods, civil, and consumer products that are addressed through varying additive manufacturing processes, including extrusion, photopolymer, and powder printing approaches.
Dr. Paul F. Egan
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- design
- 3D printing
- additive manufacturing
- polymers
- applications
- engineering
- functional materials
- mechanics
- lattices
- devices
- healthcare
- aerospace
- automotive
- electronics
- foods
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