Laser sintering and post-processing of a walnut shell/Co-PES composite

Abstract

In order to recycle agricultural and forestry waste and reduce the cost of materials, energy consumption and CO2 emission of the laser sintering process, herein, a sustainable and low-cost walnut shell/Co-PES composite (WSPC) is developed as a feedstock for laser sintering technology. Laser sintering experiments are performed to study the formability of WSPC. Through single layer sintering, the optimal mixture ratio of walnut shell powder and Co-PES was determined, which is 1 : 4 by weight. Moreover, the microstructure and dispersity of walnut shell particles in the WSPC prototype were examined via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, it is shown that the WSPC parts have good forming accuracy and mechanical properties. The tensile strength, bending strength and impact strength of the WSPC parts are 6.0801 MPa, 9.6759 MPa and 0.8102 kJ m-2, respectively. In order to improve the strength of the WSPC parts, their internal pores were filled with infiltrating wax through post-processing. The result shows that the density of the WSPC parts considerably increases and their average tensile strength, bending strength and impact strength increase to 6.5879 MPa, 11.0822 MPa and 0.9504 kJ m-2, respectively.