3D printing of plant fiber reinforced polymer composites (PFRC’s): an insight into methods, challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT

Plant fibers over the years have succeeded in generating interest among researchers about their use. This is mainly due to several ecological legislations put in place by nations to counter the rise in global warming levels. Although plant fiber-based polymer composites are penetrating various domains, concern regarding their suitability and challenges related to manufacturing techniques needs to be addressed. This review attempts to discuss various aspects of plant fibers, their processing with polymer, and methods to improve the fib-matrix interaction. The article also presents an insight into different 3D printing techniques such as fused deposition modeling, laminated object manufacturing, stereolithography, selective laser sintering, and inkjet printer for processing fiber-based polymer composites. The use of technologically advanced 4D printing of fiber-polymer composites is also discussed. Challenges and futuristic opportunities associated with recent works on 3D printing techniques are analyzed toward the end. The paper is structured in the following manner: the first part focuses on natural fibers with their constituents, their processing, and manufacturing techniques with polymers, while the second part of the paper discusses various 3D printing techniques with their challenges and opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Plant fibers
• polymer composites
• 3D printing
• 4D printing

List of abbreviations

Table

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Sachin Salunkhe

Dr. Sachin Salunkhe is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Vel Tech University Chennai, India. He received his M-Tech and Ph.D. from the S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India. His main research interests are in the area of press tool design, A.I. applications in manufacturing, expert systems for die design, and sheet metal forming. He has more than 100 research papers in reputed journals, conferences and six books to his credit. Dr. Sachin is an editor of various international journals such as Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part L, International journal for simulation and multidisciplinary design optimization, Lubricants, Metal, MDPI and Frontiers in Materials. Dr. Sachin is also visiting professor of additive manufacturing at Navajo Technical University, New Mexico, United States of America (USA).

Arun Prasad Murali

Dr. Arun Prasad. M primarily works in the field of processing of high temperature materials. He completed his Doctoral studies in “Development and Investigation of Oxide Dispersion Strengthened 21-4N ASS for High Temperature Applications” in the year 2020 from Vel Tech University. In his doctoral studies he worked in state of the art laboratories for the processing and testing of materials in IIT-Madras, PSG Tech, ARCI-Chennai and CEG. He was awarded ASM Student Research Recognition Award for best PhD thesis for the year 2021. His research interest is material development, welding, ablative materials, metallurgical characterization, tribology and powder metallurgy. He was also awarded SERB-TARE fellow by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He is life member in professional bodies namely The Indian Institute of Metals, The Indian Society for Technical Education, The Institution of Engineers (India), Electron Microscope Society of India, American Society of Metals and Powder Metallurgy Society of India. He has published 23 peer reviewed journals as on date.

Hussein Mohammed Abdel Moneam

Dr. H.M.A. Hussein is currently serving at the Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. Hereceived his PhD in Mechanical (Production) Engineering from Helwan University, Egypt in 2008. He has also served in the tool design department of many companies. His research interests include computer aided sheet metal die design, AI applications to sheet metal forming, CAD/CAM, AutoCAD application and customization, and CAPP. He has completed many research projects in the area of design and manufacturing sanctioned by various funding agencies. He is a member of the Egyptian Syndicate of Professional Engineers, and of the Egyptian Mechanical Engineers Associations

Vishal Naranje

Dr. Vishal Naranje, Programme Leader and Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and has 20 years of teaching, academic and administrative experience at various Universities. His research is situated in the field of Artificial Intelligence Systems for Manufacturing, Automated Sheet Metal Features Recognition, Digital Manufacturing etc. Look forward to higher-level job prospects in theeducation sector. Dr. Vishal Naranje teaches several courses on Digital Manufacturing, DesignEngineering, and Manufacturing Technology for graduate and post-graduate engineering students. He is the author or co-author of more than 60 papers in international refereed journalsand conferences. He has successfully completed industry-sponsored research projects.

Ragavanantham Shanmugam

Dr. Ragavanantham completed his PhD for Anna University and currently working in Navajo Technical University, New Mexico, USA. He has got projects from NSF and works in the field of additive manufacturing. He is also a Board of Studies member in various institutions. He has around 10 peer reviewed publications. He is life member in professional bodies namely Indian Society for Technical Education, Indian Society for Non Destructive Testing, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Society of Automotive Engineers and American Society of Mechanical Engineers.