**1. Introduction**

The process of joining materials layer upon layer from 3D digital model data or Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model is known as additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing as per International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 52900:2015 standard [1]. 3D printing has a long history of development for using it in the rapid prototyping of products for manufacturing since the 1980s. This development has since then led to also accessibility to the public. These developments started when Chuck Hull of 3D System Corp. filed their patent for a stereolithographic process eventually evolving into a 3D-printing technology boom [2]. Today 3D printer is priced as low as \$100 [3] and is therefore accessible to the general public. Recent advances in 3D printing include, for example, the manufacturing of biomaterials for biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering. With recent advancements in the 3D printers, the industrial printers can build as small layers as 16 μm and thus creating a major milestone for biomedical applications [4]. 3D-printing technology can be used in various forms of materials printing, including fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), selective laser melting (SLM), and electron beam melting (EBM). The most used techniques are stereolithography and fused deposition modeling [5].

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 52900:2015 has classified the additive manufacturing (AM) process into seven categories (**Figure 1**) [5, 6].

There are several benefits to using 3D printing, such as [5, 7]:


**Figure 1.**

*Additive manufacturing processes.*

### *New Industrial Sustainable Growth: 3D and 4D Printing DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104728*

Although the 3D-printing industry is rapidly growing, there have been several economic, social, and environmental challenges that need to be addressed, such as recycling of materials, energy usage, organic compounds emission, high cost of raw materials, and standards and certifications [6]. The lack of printing material [8] and the high cost of thermoplastic polymers add to the barrier to the industrialization of 3D-printing technologies [9]. The market growth potential is considerable for 3D-printing as it is estimated that the filament market will be worth \$ 6.6 billion by 2026 [10]. One concern for the advancement of 3D printing other than the high cost of raw material is the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC), including isobutanol and methyl-methacrylate [11]. To address the abovementioned economic and environmental concerns, there has been a new advancement in the additive manufacturing process which includes the addition of additives can such as diatoms [10] and biodegradable materials, such as ceramics, biomaterials, graphene, carbon fibers, binders for metals, sand, and plaster [12]. The cost of these additives is relatively much less than the thermoplastic filaments. In addition, there are added benefits including included in the addition of additives, such as improved moisture resistance that may slow down the process of decomposition of the filament material and may potentially open up other innovative functional possibilities, such as immobilization of chemical sensors and bacteria and virus-killing agents for novel biomedical applications.

In general, the structures fabricated with 3D printing either using single or multiple materials are intrinsically static, hence 3D printing cannot meet the demands where dynamic materials applications are needed including, for example, hygromorph biocomposites [13], adaptive wind turbines [14], active biocomposites [15], and self-folding microgrippers [16]. This addition of a new dimension to 3D printing has started a new era of printing known as 4D printing and includes novel materials compositions, additives, and chemical functionalization.
