Comparison of FDMed and compression molded biocomposites in polylactic acid and food flour waste

Abstract

Polylactic acid resins are some of the most largely used bioplastics, some characteristics still limit their use, such as in mixing with other polymers or inclusion of additives. Currently, additive manufacturing technologies are enlarging their application sectors because they allow more rational use of raw materials, limiting both production waste and onerous post-processing stages. In this framework, polylactic acid resins, particularly favoured by their slow crystallization rate and the large availability, are some of the most used to obtain commercial filaments for fused deposition modeling. This research is then focused on the processability of the compounds, based on a commercial PLA resin, additivated with 1, 3, and 5 wt% of food flour wastes. The comparison of the performance of the products obtained with conventional and innovative technologies, respectively compression molding and FDM, is the key point of this study. Mechanical and morphological properties, obtained by the two technologies, were evaluated for neat and additivated resins. Preliminary results emphasize that, through compression molded, it was possible to obtain homogeneous components and the natural infilled used acts as reinforcement improving mechanical performances. For the additive technology, the samples obtained show a lower mechanical behavior due to the technological issues of 3d printing.