Smart materials in additive manufacturing: state of the art and trends

ABSTRACT

Additive Manufacturing or 3D Printing has a great potential to develop significant advances in materials, printers’ technology, and processes. Thus, the layer by layer manufacturing has existed for three decades and new developments recently appeared in smart materials. Laboratories discovered ways to design and manufacture advanced structured materials and responsive materials used in multi-functional and high-performance products. The current research and development efforts will have an impact on the traditional design and manufacturing process. 4D Printing announces a major modification in the product design and manufacturing process from static structures to dynamic structures like Shape Memory Material (SMM) with integrated functionalities. This article presents a review of smart materials based on a classification of advanced structured materials and responsive materials before beginning a description of current applications. The use of multi-materials and the study of predictive models to simulate the responsive materials behaviour accelerate the smart materials development.

KEYWORDS:

• Smart material
• shape memory material
• additive manufacturing
• 4D printing
• bioprinting
• advanced structured materials

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Julien Gardan is assistant professor at the EPF School of Engineering in Troyes since 2013 and attached to the University of Technology in Troyes (UTT). His thesis was based on the study of reconstructed wood products in 3D Printing, and he received his Ph.D. in 2011. He is responsible for a 3D printing laboratory in Troyes and his research spans the areas of Additive Manufacturing in DFAM and Smart Materials.

ORCID

Julien Gardan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6521-4526