Photopolymers in 3D printing applications

3D printing is an emerging technology with applications in several areas. The flexibility of the 3D printing system to use variety of materials and create any object makes it an attractive technology. Photopolymers are one of the materials used in 3D printing with potential to make products with better properties. Due to numerous applications of photopolymers and 3D printing technologies, this thesis is written to provide information about the various 3D printing technologies with particular focus on photopolymer based systems.The thesis includes extensive literature research on 3D printing and photopolymer systems, which was supported by visit to technology fair and demo experiments. Further, useful information about recent technological advancements in 3D printing and materials was acquired by discussions with companies’ representatives at the fair. This analysis method was helpful to see the industrial based 3D printers and how companies are creating digital materials on its own. Finally, the demo experiment was carried out with fusion deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer at the Arcada lab. Few objects were printed out using polylactic acid (PLA) material