Trends of using polymer composite materials in additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is nowadays one of the advanced manufacturing technologies used to convert three dimensional product data to physical objects without any special tooling. The emergence of the technology has made production of complex geometries having consumer demands for more customized products and services. Though the underlying technology was initially intended for rapid prototyping, the technology has recently getting wider attention in diverse industrial sectors using different material types commonly polymers, metals, ceramics, and other compatible researched materials as input. Because the technology processes the input materials with no or very low wastes, the use of polymer composite materials leads to a no waste manufacturing system. This article aims to review and analyse the opportunity and existing challenges for AM technology in processing polymer composites and provide an insight on the state-of -the art applications. The paper provides an overview of the materials and processes currently available for this novel production technology to fill the industrial needs for engineering application. In addition, closely reviewing published research works in the area, the existing research gaps are identified for possible future research in the field