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This paper aims to propose a method that can directly print low-melting-point alloy In61Bi26Sn9Ga4 into a variety of macroscopic 3D structures at room temperature via adhesion mechanism.

In the first section, the principle of the direct printing system is described. As process parameters and material properties have both geometric and physical significance to printing, the approach the authors take is to study the relationships between key parameters and ultimate printed dimension. The surface tension of the fusible alloy is measured under different temperature ranges.

The interaction between the initial standoff distance and the geometry of the first layer is critically important for the adhesion of the liquid metal to the substrate and metal deposition. The characterization of the layer stacking in the direct printing process, stability ranges of the layer thickness and printing speed are also demonstrated. The direct printing system is suitable for making 3D structures with low-melting-point alloy under the summarized range of printing conditions.

This study may arouse big public attention among society.

This study shows possibilities of manufacturing macroscopic 3D metal objects by continuously depositing molten alloy with low viscosity and high surface tension around room temperature. This study provides a supplement to realize compound printing with metal and nonmetal materials together for building terminal functional devices in a low cost and efficient way.

This purpose of this study was to develop a 3D printer based on powder particle. The best degreasing and sintering process of a blank body was investigated to obtain a metal product with high precision and high surface finish. This process will greatly reduce the difficulty and cost of forming a complex metal product with high application value.

Stainless steel powder and polymer materials were mixed using a rubber mixing machine. The powders were granulated to prepare a mixed material. A powder feed 3D printer was used at low temperature (about 200°C) to print and degrease the body. A series of sintering experiments were performed to study the different sintering temperatures, and the physical and mechanical properties of the sample sintered under various conditions were compared to determine the best degreasing and sintering process.

The reaction at 1,370°C was the optimal route for the metal billet degreasing. The resulting metal products had fine structure and stable performance compared with the products with traditional powder metallurgy composition.

Most 3D printed metal powder materials rely on imports, which are expensive and increase the manufacturing cost. These drawbacks limit the application and development of metal 3D printing technology to a certain extent. The successful study of this molding method greatly reduces the difficulty and cost of forming complex metal products with high application value. This report will provide valuable guidance for sintering process and forming methods.

The extrusion-based additive manufacturing method followed by debinding and sintering steps can produce metal parts efficiently at a relatively low cost and material wastage. In this study, 316L stainless-steel metal filled filaments were used to print metal parts using the extrusion-based fused filament fabrication (FFF) approach. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of common FFF printing parameters on the geometric and mechanical performance of FFF manufactured 316L stainless-steel components.

The microstructural characteristics of the metal filled filament, three-dimensional (3D) printed green parts and final sintered parts were analysed. In addition, the dimensional accuracy of the green parts was evaluated, as well as the hardness, tensile properties, relative density, part shrinkage and the porosity of the sintered samples. Moreover, surface quality in terms of surface roughness after sintering was assessed. Predictive models based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used for characterizing dimensional accuracy, shrinkage, surface roughness and density. Additionally, the response surface method based on ANNs was applied to represent the behaviour of these parameters and to identify the optimum 3D printing conditions.

The effects of the FFF process parameters such as build orientation and nozzle diameter were significant. The pore distribution was strongly linked to the build orientation and printing strategy. Furthermore, porosity decreased with increased nozzle diameter, which increased mechanical performance. In contrast, lower nozzle diameters achieved lower roughness values and average deviations. Thus, it should be noted that the modification of process parameters to achieve greater geometrical accuracy weakened mechanical performance.

Near-dense 316L austenitic stainless-steel components using FFF technology were successfully manufactured. This study provides print guidelines and further information regarding the impact of FFF process parameters on the mechanical, microstructural and geometric performance of 3D printed 316L components.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies have gained attention in dentistry because of their ability to print objects with complex geometries with high precision and accuracy, as well as the benefits of saving materials and treatment time. This study aims to explain the principles of the main 3D printing technologies used for manufacturing dental prostheses and devices, with details of their manufacturing processes and characteristics. This review presents an overview of available 3D printing technologies and materials for dental prostheses and devices.

This review was targeted to include publications pertaining to the fabrication of dental prostheses and devices by 3D printing technologies between 2012 and 2021. A literature search was carried out using the Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar search engines, as well as the use of a manual search.

3D printing technologies have been used for manufacturing dental prostheses and devices using a wide range of materials, including polymers, metals and ceramics. 3D printing technologies have demonstrated promising experimental outcomes for the fabrication of dental prostheses and devices. However, further developments in the materials for fixed dental prostheses are required.

3D printing technologies are effective and commercially available for the manufacturing of polymeric and metallic dental prostheses. Although the printing of dental ceramics and composites for dental prostheses is promising, further improvements are required.

Industries and businesses are pursuing Industry 4.0 technologies as well as adopting a circular approach focused on improving manufacturing processes through the reduction of wastes, CO₂ emissions and mineral exploration to mitigate the impact of climate change. In this sense, additive manufacturing (AM), often referred to as 3D printing, can play a key role in the closed-loop of operations. However, academics and practitioners have scarcely discussed the feasibility of implementing AM alongside circular economy (CE) practices, the techniques and methods that this would require, or how AM could benefit sustainability and circularity. To address these gaps, this paper proposes a novel circular sustainable 3D printing model for scrap recycling in the automotive industry.

The methodology uses a literature review-based approach followed by empirical research using metal scraps as the raw material for fabricating a powder to input a metal 3D printer for generating sustainable automotive components. A conceptual sustainable circular model for the automotive industry is proposed. Next, is conducted a focus group comprises AM and automotive industry experts for evaluations.

The results indicate that the proposed model can be used to reintroduce waste back into the manufacturing chain as raw material for the on-demand manufacture and supply of automotive components and that it may also have social and environmental implications.

This paper’s contributions are threefold: it explores the combined use of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), CE and sustainability in the automotive industry, develops a new model to support the circularity and sustainability of the scrap chain and proposes the use of AM as a catalyst of CE practices by reproducing recycled components with a 3D printer for prototypes or fully functioning components.

Environmental degradation has emerged as one of the major limitations of industrial revolution and has led to an increased focus towards developing sustainable strategies and techniques. This paper aims to highlight the sustainability aspects of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology that helps towards a better implementation of Industry 4.0. It also aims to provide a brief picture of relationships between 3D printing, Industry 4.0 and sustainability. The major goal is to facilitate the researchers, scholars, engineers and recommend further research, development and innovations in the field.

The various enabling factors for implementation of Industry 4.0 are discussed in detail. Some barriers to incorporation of 3D Printing, its applications areas and global market scenario are also discussed. A through literature review has been done to study the detailed relationships between 3D printing, Industry 4.0 and sustainability.

The technological benefits of 3D printing are many such as weight savings, waste minimization and energy savings. Further, the production of new 3D printable materials with improved features helps in reducing the wastage of material during the process. 3D printing if used at a large scale would help industries to implement the concept of Industry 4.0.

This paper focuses on discussing technological revolution under Industry 4.0 and incorporates 3D printing-type technologies that largely change the product manufacturing scenario. The interrelationships between 3D printing, Industry 4.0 and sustainability have been discussed.

The purpose of this paper is provide a broad view for the standardization efforts of color quality evaluation of color 3D printing techniques. Further, this review paper demonstrates the processes and color properties of most color 3D printing techniques with specific devices and applications to extend the range of possible memberships of standardization group.

Six color 3D printing techniques including plastic-based, paper-based, powder-based, organism-based, food-based and metal-based color 3D printing have been introduced and illustrated with colorization principles and forming features in detail. Moreover, for printed 3D color objects, literature about color measurement, color specification and color reproduction are described and analyzed, respectively.

Four color 3D printing techniques including plastic-based, paper-based, powder-based and food-based color 3D printing show great affinity toward standardization of color quality evaluation, while their colorization principles indicate that it is difficult with a single standard frame. It is possible to develop a completed color quality evaluation standard for color 3D printing based on approaches in color 2D printing when color measurement method and devices are standardized together.

The paper provides an important guide focusing on the efforts to standardize the colorization processes and color quality evaluation of the color 3D printing techniques.

Although many researchers have widely studied additive manufacturing (AM) as one of the most important industrial revolutions, few have presented a bibliometric analysis of the published studies in this area. This paper aims to evaluate AM research trends based on 4607 publications most cited from year 2010 to 2020.

The research methodology is bibliometric indicators and network analysis, including analysis based on keywords, citation analysis, productive journal, related published papers and authors indicators. Two free available software were employed VOSviewer and Bibexcel.

Keywords analysis results indicate that among the AM processes, Selective Laser Melting and Fused Deposition Modeling techniques, are the two processes ranked on top of the techniques employed and studied with 35.76% and 20.09% respectively. The citation analysis by VOSviewer software, reveals that the medical applications field and the fabrication of metal parts are the areas that interest researchers greatly. Different new research niches, as pharmaceutical industry, digital construction and food fabrication are growing topics in AM scientific works. This study reveals that journals “Materials & design”, “Advanced materials”, “Acs applied materials & interfaces”, “Additive manufacturing”, “Advanced functional materials” and “Biofabrication” are the most productive and influential in AM scientific research.

The results and conclusions of this work can be used as indicators of trends in AM research and/or as prospects for future studies in this area.

In recent years, 3D printing technologies have been widely used in the construction industry. 3D printing in construction is very attractive because of its capability of process automation and the possibility of saving labor, waste materials, construction time and hazardous procedures for humans. Significant researches were conducted to identify the performance of the materials, while some researches focused on the development of novel techniques and methods, such as building information modeling. This paper aims to provide a detailed overview of the state-of-the-art of currently used 3D printing technologies in the construction areas and global acceptance in its applications.

The working principle of additive manufacturing in construction engineering (CE) is presented in terms of structural design, materials used and theoretical background of the leading technologies that are used to construct buildings and structures as well as their distinctive features.

The trends of 3D printing processes in CE are very promising, as well as the development of novel materials, will gain further momentum. The findings also indicate that the digital twin (DT) in construction technology would bring the industry a step forward toward achieving the goal of Industry 5.0.

This review highlights the prospects of digital manufacturing and the DT in construction engineering. It also indicates the future research direction of 3D printing in various constriction sectors.

This paper aims to evaluate and predict the tensile properties of additively manufactured continuous wire polymer composites (CWPCs).

An open-source 3D printer was modified to print CWPCs where metal wires act as a reinforcement within a polymer matrix. The influence of different wire materials and diameters on the tensile modulus and ultimate tensile strength was studied. Different polymer matrixes were used to investigate the effect of the matrix on CWPCs’ tensile properties. The behaviour of samples was predicted analytically using the rule of mixture micromechanical approach and investigated experimentally using an American society for testing and materials standard tensile test.

Experimental results showed improvement in the elastic modulus and ultimate strength of CWPCs compared with non-reinforced specimens. Deviation between the experimental data and the analytical prediction was found to be dependent on the matrix type, wire volume fraction and wire material.

This paper introduces novel continuous metal wire-reinforced 3D printed composites. The continuous wire inside the print can be used as a strain gauge which can give an early alert for material failure. Applications for CWPCs include 3D-printed pressure and temperature sensors which measure the change in the wire’s electrical resistance and 3D-printed heaters which would work by supplying current through continuous wires.