Humanity Research IN S.T.E.A.M.
Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing of Polylactic Acid-Wood Flour Biocomposite and How it Compares with Injection Moulding Javid Sharifi, Haniyeh (Ramona) Fayazfar Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Ontario, L1G 0C5, Canada.
Abstract. This study investigates the development of high solid content wood flour-polymer biocomposites as sustainable feedstock, using industry wood waste as natural filler and Polylactic acid (PLA) as biobased polymer, compatible with fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D-printing and injection molding (IM). Various formulations were developed, including wood flour concentrations up to 40 wt.% and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a plasticizer. Mechanical properties were analyzed, revealing that IM samples illustrated superior tensile strength and modulus compared to 3D-printed samples as a result of more porosity in the 3D printed parts. However, the results were comparable for 40 wt% wood and 10 wt% plasticizer for both processes. These findings emphasize the importance of optimizing 3D-printing parameters for highperformance biocomposite applications in industries such as construction and automotive. Keywords: Fused filament fabrication (FFF); Injection molding (IM), 3D-printing; Wood flour; Polylactic acid
1. Introduction Additive manufacturing (AM), also called 3D printing, has emerged as a prominent technology for fabrication 3D objects by layering materials, offering various advantages such as design flexibility, cost and waste reduction compared to traditional manufacturing such as injection molding (IM) [1, 2]. Fused deposition modeling (FDM), among various AM techniques, is one of the most affordable and user-friendly AM techniques, which employs extruded filaments through a nozzle with an adequate melt flow index [3]. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a widely used FDM 3D-printing material known for its sustainability and biodegradability, while suffering inherent limitations like low flexibility and brittleness [4]. To address these 26
