| Abstract Scope |
Material extrusion additive manufacturing remains constrained by a persistent coupling between geometric resolution and deposition throughput: smaller features typically require disproportionate reductions in flow rate, build volume, or process robustness. This abstract frames the resolution–throughput conflict as a system-level process-development problem rather than a limitation of any single subsystem. In this work, we analyze how materials rheology, flow dynamics, thermal or curing kinetics, toolpath planning, machine architecture, sensing, and closed-loop control jointly determine printable feature size and volumetric productivity. Strategies for relaxing the tradeoff are organized into three mechanistic domains: software and control methods that redistribute material or modulate deposition in real time, hardware architectures that alter nozzle-scale flow or parallelize deposition, and hybrid processes that combine extrusion with complementary patterning or consolidation mechanisms. This framework identifies design principles for fabricators whose resolution and throughput can be tuned with greater independence. |