Solid freeform fabrication of prototypes using Palm Oil Fly Ash via 3D printing

Abstract

Three-Dimensional Printing (3DP) is one of the techniques in Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) which is used to fabricate physical objects directly from CAD data sources and currently the raw material for the 3D printer is expensive and limited to a number of choices. This study reports on the development of Palm Oil based Fly Ash (POFA) composite as a low-cost alternative material for prototype fabrication via the 3DP process. Powder-binder mixtures containing POFA powder with maltodextrin and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) were mechanically blended through the ball milling process. The mixtures was successfully tested to fabricate samples via the 3DP machine, Z310, using distilled water as the binding liquid which the sample was then post-treated using the ZMax solution to improve its mechanical properties. The mechanical properties, dimensional accuracy and surface quality of the samples were evaluated and the results were compared to the existing material, ZP102 plaster powder-based samples. Initial results prove that the mechanical properties of the new samples are better than the existing ZP-102-based samples. © 2011 Asian Network for Scientific Information.