Estudio del reciclaje de polímeros para la impresión 3D : caracterización del PLA

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing has been studied for more than 20 years. The technology creates new object adding the material layer by layer. Usually, plastics as PLA or ABS are used as raw material to feed 3D printers. However, environmental pollution made by plastics is a real problem to solve. For that reason, PLA is used more and more. It is biodegradable, thermoplastic, semi-crystalline and aliphatic. This research focus on PLA recycling. After the 3D printing, a mechanical treatment and re-extrusion are used in order to refeed the machine with PLA. This project explain how the processes affect PLA main properties. Degradation is visible after 3rd recycling cycle with 30% reduction of molecular weight and 50% reduction of viscosity. Beside it is a real problem after 5th cycle with 50% reduction of molecular weight and 80% reduction of viscosity. Because of time, there is not information of properties reduction for printing samples. Finally, we can affirm that main thermoplastics temperatures and working range temperature are the same in each sample no matter degradation in recycling and printing samples.