Current understanding and challenges in high temperature additive manufacturing of engineering thermoplastic polymers

Abstract

The strengths of additive manufacturing (AM), especially the tool-less manufacturing paradigm and rapid production of low-volume products, are well-aligned with the needs of manufacturing of expensive, high-temperature resistant, engineering thermoplastic polymers. High temperature polymer parts made with AM for either tooling or end-use applications have been implemented in the aerospace, automotive, and biomedical fields. However, parts made from these polymers using traditional manufacturing processes are generally high-value parts in low-quantity production runs. Moreover, AM processing of these polymers present significant challenges due to limitations associated with large thermal gradients, residual stress buildup, and interlayer adhesion as well as the inability of the printers to consistently maintain required high processing temperatures. This review highlights the current state of the art for processing high-temperature (i.e., traditional processing temperatures exceeding 250°C) thermoplastic polymers by the melt-based, AM processes of material extrusion (MatEx) and laser powder bed fusion (PBF). The authors address common challenges to AM of high-temperature polymers and gaps in fundamental understanding of the process-structure-property relationships needed to identify the machine design, process parameter selection, and synthetic modifications to enable processing.