3D printing filament as a second life of waste plastics—a review (original) (raw)
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Transformation of E-Waste Plastics into Sustainable Filaments for 3D Printing
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2018
Electronic waste (e-waste) plastics from end-of-life printers, predominantly polycarbonate, were upcycled and transformed into sustainable 3D printing filaments. Results from mechanical testing indicate that the e-waste plastics filaments and its 3D prints exhibit up to 76 % and 83 % of breaking and tensile strength respectively of its virgin counterparts produced from a widely used plastic for 3D printing i.e. ABS. The 3D prints from e-waste plastic were more flexible compared to those from virgin plastics. SEM analysis of the fractured surface of the 3D prints post tensile testing too is presented in the paper. Furthermore, LCA studies on our filament production process indicate 28 % reduction in CO2 emissions while using e-waste plastics as feedstock as compared to virgin plastics. Effects of repeated recycling, up to four extrusion cycles, on the virgin and e-waste plastic filaments were studied and a comprehensive semiquantitative degradation mechanism for the same was proposed using results from 13 C NMR and TGA analysis.
The Development of a Sustainable Technology for 3D Printing Using Recycled Materials
2017
As part of an undergraduate research project, a study was undertaken to determine the feasibility of extruding recyclable plastic into usable filament to create a sustainable technology for 3-D printing. An extrusion process was developed using Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) pellets to establish a baseline that would be used when investigating recyclable plastics. Modifications were done to allow for higher temperature extrusion to accommodate the higher melting temperature of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastics. Drying the plastic prior to extrusion was proven to be a necessary step in the extrusion process. The viscosity of the PET plastic was determined to be an important characteristic that affects the possibility of creating filament. From this study, a conclusion can be made that there are multiple key factors that will determine the feasibility of extruding recyclable plastics into filament.
A Study On Suitability Of Recycled Polythene Terephthalate For 3D Printng Filament
2017
This paper presents a novel 3D printing technology using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to produce a 3D printing filament. The commonly used 3D printing filaments are acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA), but they are very expensive and not environment friendly.There is a great interest about how the filament should be made from recycled materials and be eco-friendly. In addition, there has been extreme growth and excitement about the possibilities of using 3D printing technology to boost world economy. In this research, the recycled waste PET materials were converted into high value and useful products such as dog bones test samples, 3D printing filaments, mobile robot chassis, drone blades etc. This technology involves the conversion of a computer aided designed (CAD) file into a 3D physical object. The aim of this research was to find recycled PET specification and extrusion parameters for 3D printing filament. The American Society for Testin...
Assessment of Recycled PLA-Based Filament for 3D Printing
Materials Proceedings, 2021
This study investigated the possibility of replacing virgin matrices with recycled polymers in additive manufacturing (AM). In this regard, two commercial filaments, made from polylactide acid (PLA)—the second (here referred to as recycled) obtained from the recovery of waste production of the first one (here referred to as virgin)—were initially characterized using infrared (IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic rheology. Then, filaments were extruded in a 3D printer and characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Despite a small reduction in the intensity of correspondence of typical absorption bands of the PLA polymer, in the case of the recycled material compared to the virgin one (as attested by IR spectra), the thermal-mechanical results allow us to attest the very similar characteristics of recycled and neat filaments. The onset of thermal degradation was found at around 315 °C in both systems. Both materials exhibited the same frequency- and ...
Polymers
In the last years, the excessive use of plastic and other synthetic materials, that are generally difficult to dispose of, has caused growing ecological worries. These are contributing to redirecting the world’s attention to sustainable materials and a circular economy (CE) approach using recycling routes. In this work, bio-filaments for the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing technique were produced from recycled polylactic acid (PLA) and artisanal ceramic waste by an extrusion process and fully characterized from a physical, thermal, and mechanical point of view. The data showed different morphological, thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties of the two produced filaments. Furthermore, the 3D objects produced from the 100% recycled PLA filament showed lower mechanical performance. However, the results have demonstrated that all the produced filaments can be used in a low-cost FFF commercial printer that has been modified with simple hand-made operations in order t...
Polymers
The recycling of filaments used in three-dimensional (3D) printing systems not only mitigates the environmental issues associated with conventional 3D printing approaches but also simultaneously reduces manufacturing costs. This study investigates the effects of successive recycling of polylactic acid (PLA) filaments, which were used in the printing process, on the mechanical properties of recycled filaments and printed objects. The mechanical strengths of the printed PLA and the adhesion strengths between 3D-printed beads were evaluated via the tensile testing of the horizontally and vertically fabricated specimens. Gel permeation chromatography analysis revealed a reduction in the molecular weight of the polymer as a result of recycling, leading to a decrease in the mechanical strength of the 3D-printed product. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy images of the cutting plane showed that the fabricated beads were broken in the case of the horizontally fabricated specimen, wh...
3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, 2020
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is the most common and widespread additive manufacturing (AM) technique, but it requires the formation of filament. Fused granular fabrication (FGF), where plastic granules are directly three-dimensional (3D) printed, has become a promising technique for the AM technology. FGF could be a key driver to promote further greening of distributed recycling thanks to the reduced melt solidification steps and elimination of the filament extruder system. However, only large-scale FGF systems have been tested for technical and economic viability of recycling plastic materials. The objective of this work is to evaluate the performance of the FFF and FGF techniques in terms of technical and economical dimensions at the desktop 3D printing scale. Recycled and virgin polylactic acid material was studied by using five different types of recycling feedstocks: commercial filament, pellets, distributed filament, distributed pellets, and shredded waste. The results showed that the mechanical properties from the FGF technique using same configurations showed no statistical differences to FFF samples. Nevertheless, the granulometry could have an influence on the reproducibility of the samples, which explains that the critical factor in this technology is to assure the material input in the feeding system. In addition, FGF costs per kg of material were reduced to less than 1 Euro/kg compared with more than 20 Euro/kg for commercial recycled filament. These results are encouraging to foster FGF printer diffusion among heavy users of 3D printers because of reducing the cost associated to the filament fabrication while ensuring the technical quality. This indicates the possibility of a new type of 3D printing recycled plastic waste that is more likely to drive a circular economy and distributed recycling.
Characterization of Polystyrene Wastes as Potential Extruded Feedstock Filament for 3D Printing
Recycling, 2018
The recyclability of polystyrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polyvinylchloride waste and their use as a source for 3D printing were studied. Filaments of about 3 mm in diameter were extruded successfully with a small-size extruder. The processed filaments were tested on a broad range of parameters-melt flow index, glass transition temperature, tensile properties and a pyrolysis scenario were obtained. The measured parameters were compared with parameters of virgin counterparts presented in the literature. In order to estimate the composition of the recycled material, Fourier Transform Infrared and elemental analysis of the samples was done.