LAUSR

Recent advancements in the additive manufacturing (AM) technology have increased its utilization in various engineering sectors for the development of end-use products. However, the limited choice of available materials tends to limit its application domain. Addition of nanoparticles can significantly improve the material properties of the AM parts. Moreover, nanoparticles can be added in different stages of the process which will play an important role in determining the increase in material properties. This aspect of the stage-dependent addition of nanoparticles in AM process has not been fully explored. The present work discusses the effect of adding nanoclay in three stages of AM process namely preprocessing, on-site and post-processing stage. It has been found that the nanoparticles interact in a different way with the polymer and result in different structure, morphology and mesostructure of the nanocomposites. The approach can be utilized for achieving improved material properties of AM-fabricated parts.