22/09/2020

Titolo presentazione
Additive Manufacturing:
sottotitolo classification
and AM for polymers
Milano, XX mese 20XX

Gibson, Rosen, Stucker  2/E: Chapters 4, 6, 7, 8, 9.
(Kalpakjian S., Schmid S.R. 7/E: Chapter 7, 19
Groover M.P. 5/E: Chapter 5, 10) Bianca Maria Colosimo  (Politecnico di Milano)
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AM Process Chain 2

The process chain involved in additive manufacturing technologies is characterised by rapid, flexible and
direct fabrication from 3D CAD data. Intermediate stages, such as tool manufacturing, are not necessary.

There are basically two different categories:

single-step processes: parts are fabricated in a
single operation where the material properties of
the intended product are achieved;
multi-step processes: parts are fabricated in two
or more operations where the first typically
provides the basic geometric shape within the
additive manufacturing machine and subsequent
post-processing enhances the part’s material
properties (e.g. using infiltration, sintering, or other
thermal or chemical modification).

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Also AM can have multiple steps

ISO/ASTM 52900:2015(E)

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AM Process Chain

CAD 3D
CAD System
Creating STL File

Part Orientation
Creation of the
support structures  AM Machine
Software 
Calculation of
Each Slice Profile 

Layer by Layer
AM Machine Manufacturing

Removal and Manual
Post‐Processing manipulation

Part inspection and quality issues

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AM Process Categories

According to ISO 17296‐2:2015 and ASTM F2792‐12a:2014, the AM processes may be 
grouped in 7 basic categories:

1. Vat photopolymerization
2. Material jetting
3. Binder jetting
4. Powder bed fusion
5. Material extrusion
6. Directed energy deposition
7. Sheet lamination

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Additive Manufacturing

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AM processes and materials

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Additive Manufacturing
From prototyping to manufacturing:

3D printing processes invented during the 1980’s:

1980: first patent by Japanese Dr Kodama for Rapid prototyping

1984: Stereolithography by French then abandoned
1986: Stereolithography taken up by Charles Hull, founder of 3D Systems

1988: Scott Crump, a co‐founder of Stratasys Inc. filed a patent for Fused

Deposition Modelling (FDM)

1988: Carl Deckard brought a patent for the SLS technology

https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2017/03/01/whos‐behind‐the‐three‐main‐3d‐
printing‐technologies/

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Dr Kodama creates the ancestor of SLA

A missed patent (1980)

Japanese Doctor Hideo Kodama of Nagoya Municipal Industrial

Research Institute was among the first to invent a single-
beam laser curing approach.

He applied for a patent for his rapid prototyping system in

Japan, in May 1980.
He described his system as follow: a vat of photopolymer
material is exposed to a UV light that hardens the part and
builds up the model in layers.

Unfortunately, because of a funding issue, the full patent

specification was not filled within the one-year deadline after
application.
To support his experiments, Dr Kodama wrote two fundamental
papers on rapid prototyping:
•Three‐Dimensional Data Display by Automatic Preparation of a Three‐Dimensional Model: he explains his work in detail and all the experiments
that brought him to conceive the ancestor of stereolithography (SLA).

•Automatic Method for Fabricating a Three‐Dimensional Plastic Model with PhotoHardening Polymer, in Review of Scientific Instruments. In this

paper, he describes three basic ‘3D printing’ techniques to create plastic parts layer by layer, using photopolymerization. He also gives crucial
information for the creation of stereolithography process.

A French Team creates Stereolithography : an idea born in the canteen (1984-86)

Jean-Claude André (from the very renowned French National

Center for Scientific Research – CNRS), Alain le Méhauté (from
CGE, former Alcatel) and Olivier de Wiite (from Cilas) came next.

Alain le Méhauté, at the time young electrochemical engineer, was carrying out basic research on
fractal geometry. His colleagues disagreed with his equations. The idea was clear for him: he had to
prove he was right. He had to create a ‘fractal object’ which he explains to be ‘an object with local
properties that are equivalent to its global properties.’ Because of the complex shape of such an object,
no machine permitted such creation.
At the canteen, he talked to Olivier de Witt about his idea and the issue he had to invent a machine
that could build his ‘fractal object’ with all the complexity it requires. Olivier de Witt was at the time
working on lasers for Cilas, subsidiary of Alcatel. And guess what? Olivier told him: when two lasers
cross each other, a liquid (monomer) can become a solid (polymer). They had just thought of building a
‘3D printer’! They would use a laser to try and build Alain’s ‘fractal object’.

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A French Team creates Stereolithography : an idea born in the canteen (1984-86)

Their first experiments were not conclusive. They presented their idea to Jean-Claude André who was
a researcher at the CNRS. Always very light-hearted, he qualified the idea to be ‘an excellent good bad
idea’. He came with the idea to build the object layer by layer, and not from the block. From this moment,
the 3 men started working together to build a ‘3D printer’ The first object they created was a spiral
staircase!!

They filed a patent for stereolithography process, three weeks before the American Chuck Hull who created
3D Systems (see below)! The French Patent was granted in January 1986. (Stereolithography (SLA) gave
its name to the very well known .STL file extension.)

But unfortunately, CNRS didn’t take their idea seriously. There were not enough equations… but above
all, they didn’t identify any sectoral applications, so the issue was not worth it.

They very sadly had to give up the project. Alain Le Méhauté became a teacher in Kazan, Russia, Jean-
Claude André started working in a private company, and Olivier de Witt directed, for a while, 3D System
French subsidiary.

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Chuck Hull founded 3D System

‘The night I invented 3D printing’ (1986)

Chuck Hull graduated from Central High School in Grand Junction,

Colorado and received a BS in engineering physics from the University of
Colorado in 1961. Today, he has 93 patents to his name in the US and 20
in Europe.

In 1983, Hull was working for a company that made tough coatings for tabletops and furniture using
ultraviolet lamps. Like others within the industry, he was frustrated that the production of small plastic
parts for prototyping new product designs could take up to two months.
To go hereafter this frustration (or intuition?) he suggested that they investigate a new way to use the
UV technology: placing thousands of thin layers of plastic on top of each other thanks to UV
technology. Fortunately, he was given a little lab to experiment his idea, what he did during his
evenings and weekends.

One night, after months of experimentations, he could finally ‘print’ something… his excitement was so
high that he woke up his wife in a hurry. The only thing she said was ‘This has better be good!’.
According to Hull, medical application possibilities and the maker movement made 3D printing take off.
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Chuck Hull invented SLA

Very quickly after the patent was granted for this new production method, he set up 3D Systems in order
to commercialize his new discovery: stereolithography. The first commercial product came out in 1988.
Hull had the intuition the technology would take between 25 and 30 years to find its way in
production.

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A story that dates back to 80’s

Parallel patents were in 1984: in Japan

(Murutani), France (Andre et al.) and in
the USA (Masters in July and Hull in
August).

Charles Hull that is generally recognized as the most influential since it gave rise to 3D Systems. This was the first
company to commercialize AM technology with the Stereolithography

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Carl Deckard, the dad of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Technology!

How an undergraduate student changed the face of manufacturing (1988)

At the age of 8, when visiting the Henry Ford Museum, Carl Deckard decided he wanted to be an
inventor…
He was a mechanical engineering undergraduate at the University of Texas when he came up while
working at a summer camp, with the idea of an incredible 3D printing technology: selective laser
sintering (SLS)!
During this summer camp, he was working on an iron-based machine shop (TRW) in Houston that
made parts for oil fields. This TRW machine was on the cutting edge, using CAD in programs that
controlled machine tools. But Carl Deckard considered there were still too many castings in the
process. He worked for more than two and a half years on developing a technology that would enable a
machine to produce parts without any casting: he invented selective laser sintering technology.

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Luckily, he was really much supported and the project could be developed. As a Master and PhD
student, he continued his revolutionary research, with the help of Dr. Joe Beaman, a professor at
UT-Austin.
The ME department, the Regents from The University of Texas at Austin, the Austin Technology
Incubator, and National Science Foundation backed the idea from the beginning; SLS technology
was born!

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Introduction to AM

Additive Manufacturing Processes for polymers

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AM Process Categories

ISO/DIS 17296‐1:2014

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Why Polymers are so important

Plastics can be molded into intricate part shapes, usually with no further processing:
– Very compatible with net shape processing.

On a volumetric basis, polymers:

– Are cost competitive with metals;
– Generally require less energy to produce than metals.

Certain plastics are transparent, which makes them competitive with glass in some
applications.

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Plastic Products

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Polymers

Defined as a compound consisting of long-chain molecules, each molecule made up of repeating

units connected together.

– The word polymer is derived from the Greek words poly, meaning many, and meros (reduced
to mer), meaning part.

– Most polymers are based on carbon and are therefore considered organic chemicals.

Example: Polyethylene
1) n ethylene monomers,
‐
2) polyethylene of chain length n;
3) concise notation for depicting polymer structure of chain length n.

(1) (2) (3)

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Types of Polymers 22

Polymers can be separated into plastics and rubbers.

As engineering materials, it is appropriate to divide them into the following three
categories:
1. Thermoplastic polymers (TP);
2. Thermosetting polymers (TS);
3. Elastomers;
where (1) and (2) are plastics and (3) are rubbers.

Thermoplastics are commercially the most important of the three types:

About 70% in weight of all synthetic polymers produced;
Thermosets and elastomers share the remaining 30% about evenly, with a slight
edge for the former.
On a volumetric basis, current annual usage of polymers exceeds that of metals.

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Thermoplastics vs Thermosets 23

Solid materials at room temperature, but
viscous liquids when heated to temperatures
of only a few hundred degrees:
– This characteristic allows them to be
easily and economically shaped into
products;
– They can be subjected to heating and
cooling cycles repeatedly without
significant degradation;
– Symbolized by TP.
Cannot tolerate repeated heating cycles
as thermoplastics can:
– When initially heated, they soften
and flow for molding (pre-polymers);
– Elevated temperatures also produce
a chemical irreversible reaction
that hardens the material into an
infusible solid;
– If reheated, thermosets degrade,
burn or char rather than soften;
– Symbolized by TS.

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Elastomers (Rubbers)

Polymers that exhibit extreme elastic extensibility when subjected to relatively low
mechanical stress:

– Some elastomers can be stretched by a factor of 10 and yet completely recover

to their original shape;

– Although their properties are quite different from thermosets, they share a
similar molecular structure that is different from the thermoplastics.

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Structure of Polymers

During polymerization, the monomers are linked together by covalent bonds (a primary bond), forming a 
polymer chain. The polymer chains are, in turn, held together by secondary bonds, such as hydrogen 
bonds, dipole forces or London forces. 

Covalent Bond

Secondary
Bonds

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Material properties

F 𝜎 𝜎
𝜎 𝜎 Fracture point

Plastic deformation
𝜎 𝜎

Elastic deformation
𝐴

𝜖 𝜖

Elastic modulus Stress Strein

F 𝜎 𝐹 𝐿 𝐿
𝐸 𝜎 𝜖
𝜖 𝐴 𝐿

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TP vs TS Polymers 27

TS

TP

TP

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)

PTFE: polytetrafluoroethylene

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Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastics 28

Low modulus of elasticity (stiffness): TS

– E is much lower than metals and ceramics.
TP
Low tensile strength:
– UTS is about 10% of metal.

Much lower hardness than metals or ceramics.

Greater ductility on average:

– Tremendous range of values, from 1% elongation for
polystyrene to 500% or more for polypropylene.
TP

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Thermosetting Polymers (TS) 29

TS polymers are distinguished by their highly

TS
cross-linked three-dimensional,
covalently-bonded structure. TP

Chemical reactions associated with

cross-linking are called curing or setting.
In effect, formed part (e.g., pot handle,
electrical switch cover, etc.) becomes a large
macromolecule.
Always amorphous and exhibits no glass TP
transition temperature.

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General Properties of Thermosets

Rigid - modulus of elasticity is two to three

times greater than thermoplastics. TS

Brittle, virtually no ductility. TP

Less soluble in common solvents than

thermoplastics.
Capable of higher service temperatures
than thermoplastics.
Cannot be re-melted, instead they
degrade, burn, or char. TP

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Elastomers

Polymers capable of large elastic deformation when subjected to relatively low

stresses:

– Some can be extended 500% or more and still return to their original shape.

– Two categories:
1. Natural rubber - derived from biological plants;
2. Synthetic polymers - produced by polymerization processes like those
used for TP and TS polymers.

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Transition Temperatures of Polymers

Polymers are generally amorphous. The amorphous arrangement of polymer 
chains often is described as being like a bowl of spaghetti, all intertwined 
with each other.
In some polymers, however, it is possible to impart some crystallinity and 
thereby modify their characteristics. This arrangement may be fostered 
either during the synthesis of the polymer or by deformation during its 
subsequent processing. 

Amorphous polymers do not have a specific melting point, 
they undergo a distinct change in their mechanical 
behaviour across a narrow range of temperatures.
At low temperatures, they are hard, rigid, brittle, and 
glassy; at high temperatures, they are rubbery or leathery.
The temperature at which a transition occurs is called the 
glass‐transition temperature (Tg), also called the glass 
point or glass temperature. 

100% crystalline polymer: sharp liquid‐solid transition 
temperature (melting temperature ‐ Tm).
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Transition Temperatures of Polymers

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