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This paper aims to discuss the successful 3D printing of styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene (SEBS) block copolymers using solvent-cast 3D printing (SC-3DP) technique.

Three different Kraton grade SEBS block copolymers were used to prepare viscous polymer solutions (ink) in three different solvents, namely, toluene, cyclopentane and tetrahydrofuran. Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs) were taken into account to understand the solvent–polymer interactions. Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy was used to analyze transmittance behavior of different inks. Printability of ink samples was compared in terms of shape retention capability, solvent evaporation and shear viscosity. Dimensional deviations in 3D-printed parts were evaluated in terms of percentage shrinkage. Surface morphology of 3D-printed parts was investigated by scanning electron microscope. In addition, mechanical properties and rheology of the SC-3D-printed SEBS samples were also investigated.

HSP analysis revealed toluene to be the most suitable solvent for SC-3DP. Cyclopentane showed a strong preferential solubility toward the ethylene–butylene block. Microscopic surface cracks were present on tetrahydrofuran ink-based 3D-printed samples. SC-3D-printed samples exhibited high elongation at break (up to 2,200%) and low tension set (up to 9%).

SC-3DP proves to be an effective fabrication route for complex SEBS parts overcoming the challenges associated with fused deposition modeling.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first report investigating the effect of different solvents on physicomechanical properties of SC-3D-printed SEBS block copolymer samples.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with profit maximization problem of two-layer supply chain (SC) under fuzzy stochastic demand having finite mean and unknown variance. Buyback policy is employed from the retailer to supplier. The profit of the supplier solely depends on the order size of the retailers. However, the loss of shortage items is related to loss of profit and goodwill dependent. The authors develop the profit function separately for both the retailer and supplier, first, for a decentralized system and, second, joining them, the authors get a centralized system (CS) of decision making, in which one is giving more profit to both of them. The problem is solved analytically first, then the authors fuzzify the model and solve by fuzzy Hausdorff distance method.

The analytical models are formed for both centralized and decentralized systems under non-cooperative and cooperative environment with suitable constraints. A significant assumption on density function, namely Cauchy-type density function, is introduced for demand rate because of its wider range of the retailers’ satisfactions. Fuzzy Hausdorff metric is incorporated within the fuzzy components of the fuzzy sets itself. Using this method, the authors find out closure values of both centralized and decentralized policies, which is an essential part of any cooperative and non-cooperative two-layer SC models. Moreover, the authors take care of the profit values with corresponding ambiguities for both the systems explicitly.

It is found that the centralize policy of SC could only be able to maximize the profit of both the retailers and suppliers. All analytical results are illustrated numerically along with sensitivity analysis and side by side comparative studies between Hausdorff and Euclidean distance measure are done exclusively.

The main focus of attention of the proposed model is given to usefulness of Hausdorff distance. Unlike other distances, Hausdorff distance can take special care on the similarity measures of different fuzzy sets. Researchers have been engaged to use Hausdorff distance on the different fuzzy sets but, in this study, the authors have used it within the components of a same fuzzy set to gain more closure values than other methods.

The use of this Hausdorff distance approach is totally new as per literature survey suggested yet. However, the Cauchy-type density function has not been introduced anywhere in SC management problems by modern researchers still now. In crisp model, the sensitivity on goodwill measures really provides a special attention also.