Study on processability and mechanical properties of parawood-powder filled PLA for 3D printing material

Abstract

Abstract Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the development of 3-Dimensional (3D) printing technologies. Among those, material development play an important role in helping the growth of 3D printing technique, which led to more supporting of wide range of applications and user requirements. In that regards, advanced materials are continually developed, i.e. filament filled reinforcing fiber and plastic containing metal granulate or wood powder. Special material supporting 3D printer normally showed an expensive cost. On the other hand, it is well known that the processes involving natural rubber from Para rubber trees produced a large amount of wood a year, which resulted in releasing of an abundant waste from wood processing. Therefore, this work focused on the utilization of parawood powder derived from the furniture industry. The processability of polylactic acid (PLA) filament containing wood powder was investigated. Twin and single-screw extrusion machines were used to produce the composite filaments. Coupling agent and treated method were also studied. The results of this work showed that the maleic anhydride (MAH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) did not have significantly effects in improving the compatibility and processability. In addition, wood contents were found to influence the quality of filament and mechanical properties. Moreover, it was also found that parawood powder can be filled into PLA with approximately 10 wt%.