3D printing: Overview of PLA progress

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a technology capable to directly manufacture 3D physical model alongside with their inserted model in an additive nature, where the materials are fused to form a product, unlike the traditional manufacturing method. One of the most common additive manufacturing technology is Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). FDM has been used widely for concept modelling and visualisation, fit, form, and functional analysis and rapid manufacturing. This review provides a brief discussion about how additive manufacturing works, the stages involved, beginning from the designing stage until the formation of the final product together with its strength and limitation as a rapid prototyping technique. Fundamental aspects of FDM such as working mechanism and processing parameters are presented to give an overview for the potential readers. This study emphasises the progress of pure Polylactic Acid (PLA) utilising FDM and looks at the opportunity it offers as an advanced material when integrated with filler compounds forming potential composites. A summary of the recent developments of PLA composites have been included, also elaborating the preparation technique and the relevance of the composite developed. Mechanical properties of pure PLA have been characterised in table form highlighting the processing parameter used, types of mechanical tests done and the resulting values from those conducted experiments for comparison purpose. This information will serve as a benchmark for the beginners regarding the progress of PLA as one of the most commonly used material in FDM.