Investigation of bioplastics for additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) has been growing in interest due to its non-traditional approach to producing objects by which components are fabricated directly from computer models by selectively depositing and consolidating or curing raw materials in successive layers. Currently, most polymer AM processes are limited by a narrow field of available and compatible materials. Typical thermoplastics common to the injection molding industry are created from petroleum, a limited and nonrenewable resource and have been widely adopted for use in AM. Recently plastics that are more sustainable, such as polylactic acid (PLA), have started to gain traction as a competitor to these traditional plastics. For this study, cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), cellulose acetate propionate (CAP), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), nylon 11, and polycaprolactone (PCL) were formulated and tested for AM. In addition, ABS and PLA were tested as control materials. Results showed the technical feasibility of some bioplastics for AM.