Prospects of Natural Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites for Additive Manufacturing Applications: A Review

The development of manufacturing processes in various sector applications has increased rapidly to produce precise, superior quality, durable, and cost-effective products. In addition, additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the emerging technologies to manufacture complex-shaped components with more precise and aesthetic shapes in different fields of application. The present paper reviews the prospects of natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites for AM applications, and focuses on critical analysis and graphically representation of research trends of fused deposition modeling (FDM) materials. The results reveal that the mechanical properties of polymers with reinforcements of natural fibers have improved by 20–30% as compared to pure polymers in the field of FDM applications. The structure of the present review contains an introduction, applications, materials, the FDM process, mechanical properties of polymers and polymers with reinforcements of natural fibers, comparative analysis, a summary, conclusions, and future prospects of hybrid materials for various industrial applications.