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Structural Integrity of Polymeric Components Produced by Additive Manufacturing

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Processing and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (13 June 2022) | Viewed by 7121

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NOVA School of Science & Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Interests: fatigue; fracture; structural integrity; failure analysis; mechanical behaviour of materials
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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: glass-fiber reinforced polymers; 3D printed polymers; fatigue of polymers; ageing effects
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Materials and Environment, Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: fatigue and fracture behavior of materials; mechanical characterization; structural integrity of conventional and innovative materials
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Engineering materials can be divided into three main classes: metallic materials, polymeric materials, and ceramics, which, together with their various forms of processing, give origin to thousands of engineering components at our disposal in the modern economy. In fact, humankind has been using materials since its inception to improve daily life, and innovative research on materials and technological processes still aims to achieve this purpose. Moreover, different materials have been implemented in a variety of ways, and, in a period, and for specific applications, new materials and/or new technological processes could originate from the substitution of a material by another if they satisfy the design requirements.

In addition, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is defined as a “process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer-upon-layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies, such as traditional machining”. In fact, since the invention of AM, its impact has continued to grow in both commercial and scholarly domains by the processing of several types of polymers and, more recently, metals. Therefore, this technology is shifting from prototyping to a dominant production industry.

In this Special Issue, the structural integrity of polymeric components produced by additive manufacturing will be addressed. We can say that most polymers, either natural or synthetic, thermoplastic or thermosetting, can be considered as cheap materials, also characterised by low densities and by a vast diversity of mechanical resistance, ductility, toughness, and viscoelasticity, to mention a few attributes. Their use increased tremendously since the 1930s, substituting steel, glasses, etc., and introducing an extensive list of new synthetic polymers in final products. Therefore, we would like to kindly invite you to present your research or technology results concerning the use of AM of polymers, covering a broad range of all the scientific areas of knowledge.

Thank you very much in advance for your kind attention and participation.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Rui Fernando Martins
Prof. Dr. Ricardo Branco
Prof. Dr. Filippo Berto
Guest Editors

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

  • polymers
  • additive manufacturing
  • structural integrity
  • mechanical engineering
  • biomedical engineering
  • automotive engineering
  • aerospace and aeronautical engineering
  • electrical engineering
  • maintenance engineering
  • orthodontics
  • orthopedics
  • failure analysis
  • fatigue and fracture mechanics

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 8042 KiB  
Article
Solid Stress-Distribution-Oriented Design and Topology Optimization of 3D-Printed Heterogeneous Lattice Structures with Light Weight and High Specific Rigidity
by Bo Li and Ciming Shen
Polymers 2022, 14(14), 2807; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14142807 - 9 Jul 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3126
Abstract
Lightweight structural design is greatly valued in the aviation, aerospace, and automotive industries. Three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques provide viable and popular technical pathways for the rapid design and manufacturing of lightweight lattice structures. Unlike the conventional design idea of a geometrically homogenized lattice [...] Read more.
Lightweight structural design is greatly valued in the aviation, aerospace, and automotive industries. Three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques provide viable and popular technical pathways for the rapid design and manufacturing of lightweight lattice structures. Unlike the conventional design idea of a geometrically homogenized lattice structure, this work provides a design method for structurally heterogeneous lattice according to the spatial stress state of 3D-printed parts. Following the quasi-static stress numerical simulations of solid components, finite element mesh units were inconsistently replaced by lattice units with different specific rigidities corresponding to the localized stress levels. Relying on the topology optimization further lightened the lattice structure under quasi-static stress after removing some parts with extremely low stress from the overall structure. As an embodiment of this design idea, face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice units with different strut diameters were employed to non-uniformly and adaptively fill a solid part under localized loading. The topological optimization was conducted on the solid part globally. Then, the topologically optimized solid and the heterogeneous lattice structure were subjected to the geometric Boolean operation. Stereolithographic 3D printing was utilized to fabricate the homogeneous and heterogeneous lattice structural parts for comparative tests of three-point bending. Three evaluation indicators were defined for the standardized assessment of the geometrically complex lattice structures for the performance evaluation. This demonstrated that the heterogeneous lattice part exhibited better comprehensive mechanical performance than the uniform lattice. This work proved the feasibility of this new perspective on 3D-printed lightweight structure design and topology optimization. Full article
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10 pages, 3616 KiB  
Article
Structural Integrity of Polymeric Components Produced by Additive Manufacturing (AM)—Polymer Applications
by Rui F. Martins, Ricardo Branco, Filippo Berto, Nuno Soares and Sebastião Bandeira
Polymers 2021, 13(24), 4420; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13244420 - 16 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2112
Abstract
In the work presented herein, the structural integrity of polymeric functional components made of Nylon-645 and Polylactic acid (PLA) produced by additive manufacturing (Fused Deposition Modelling, FDM) is studied. The PLA component under study was selected from the production line of a brewing [...] Read more.
In the work presented herein, the structural integrity of polymeric functional components made of Nylon-645 and Polylactic acid (PLA) produced by additive manufacturing (Fused Deposition Modelling, FDM) is studied. The PLA component under study was selected from the production line of a brewing company, and it was redesigned and analyzed using the Finite Element Method, 3D printed, and installed under real service. The results obtained indicated that, even though the durability of the 3D printed part was lower than the original, savings of about EUR 7000 a year could be achieved for the component studied. Moreover, it was shown that widespread use of AM with other specific PLA components could result in even more significant savings. Additionally, a metallic hanger (2700 kg/m3) from the cockpit of an airplane ATR 70 series 500 was successfully redesigned and additively manufactured in Nylon 645, resulting in a mass reduction of approximately 60% while maintaining its fit-for-purpose. Therefore, the components produced by FDM were used as fully functional components rather than prototype models, which is frequently stated as a major constraint of the FDM process. Full article
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