Editorial

Citation

Campbell, I. (2015), "Editorial", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 21 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-08-2015-0112

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Rapid Prototyping Journal, Volume 21, Issue 6

As another Rapid Prototyping Journal (RPJ) Volume is completed, I once again want to thank all the editors, reviewers and, most importantly, authors who have given their time towards the continuing success of the RPJ. Our hard work is being rewarded in terms of more article downloads and more citations, with the journal impact factor rising above 2 for the first time. This is a very respectable figure for an engineering journal and compares well with other journals that our authors may consider submitting their work to. The number of manuscripts being submitted to the RPJ also continues to rise and the pagination of the journal will again be increased to meet this demand. Along with this, there is an increasing need for new reviewers. As well as asking existing RPJ authors to become reviewers, it has been an encouragement that new researchers in additive manufacturing (AM) have been approaching me to ask if they can become reviewers. It is always good to bring new faces with new expertise into our college of reviewers.

The range of materials available for use with AM continues to grow. Commercial vendors have introduced new polymers and metals, whilst researchers are investigating more exotic materials. Recently, researchers from MIT announced a 3D printer that can print ten different materials and a material extrusion process that can produce optically clear glass objects. Glass is a particularly difficult material to use, as it requires a very high temperature for melting and a slowly reducing temperature for solidifying without cracks. The MIT team have solved these problems by having two chambers in the machine, an upper kiln kept at a temperature of over 1,000°C and a lower insulated chamber that allows slow cooling of the extruded glass. The objects currently being shown are aesthetically pleasing vases, but in future, this technology could be applied to more complex functional parts. It will be interesting to see if other high-temperature materials can be treated in a similar manner.

Finally, it is my pleasure to announce that the RPJ’s long-standing connection with the Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) Symposium organised by the University of Texas at Austin has been renewed. In addition to offering prizes for best paper and best presentation at the 2015 symposium, it is planned that Volume 22 of the journal will contain selected SFF papers that will have been processed through the normal RPJ review procedure. The SFF Symposium has now been running for 26 consecutive years and continues to be recognised as the leading international conference for AM research. In line with the increasing interest in AM, attendance at the symposium is on an upward trend (up 30 per cent from 2014) and the number of papers presentations in 2015 was over 250, also an increase of 30 per cent. I know that the organisers will already be thinking hard about how to accommodate an even larger potential attendance in 2016.

Ian Campbell