Int. J. Rapid Manufacturing, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, 2015 215 Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Advances in nanocomposite materials for additive manufacturing Vishal Francis and Prashant K. Jain* Mechanical Engineering Discipline, PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing Jabalpur, Jabalpur 482005, Madhya Pradesh, India Email: f.vishal@iiitdmj.ac.in Email: pkjain@iiitdmj.ac.in *Corresponding author Abstract: Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a novel technology, only three decades old, which builds parts layer by layer. Production of complex geometries, shorter manufacturing lead time and cost-savings are a few of the advantages among many, which have made AM a major contender in the field of manufacturing. However, the process has its own limitations as each AM process caters only for limited materials. Primarily, polymers were processed; later on composites were developed to enhance the material properties of the parts fabricated. Recently, the advancements in nanotechnology have opened avenues for development of nanocomposites, which exhibit superior material properties when compared with macrocomposites. Attempts have been made by researchers to study the feasibility of processing nanocomposite in various AM processes. The paper presents the current state of the art about the developed nanocomposites for AM processes; also, the effects of nanofillers on mechanical properties of the part build are reviewed. Keywords: additive manufacturing; nanocomposite; fused deposition modelling; selective laser sintering/melting; 3D printing. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Francis, V. and Jain, P.K. (2015) ‘Advances in nanocomposite materials for additive manufacturing’, Int. J. Rapid Manufacturing, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, pp.215–233. Biographical notes: Vishal Francis is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Discipline at PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He is working in the area of additive manufacturing. His research interests include additive manufacturing, nanocomposite, CAD/CAM, CNC programming and machining. Prashant K. Jain is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Discipline of the PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is Project Investigator for an ongoing research project in the area of additive–subtractive manufacturing sponsored by DST, Delhi. He is also Co-Project Investigator of another research project in the area of incremental sheet forming sponsored by BARC, Mumbai. Earlier, he has served as Project Scientist and Research Associate at IIT Delhi. His research interests include rapid prototyping and tooling, CNC machining, geometric modelling, CAD/CAM and computational geometry.