On the Development of Polylactic Acid-Stubble Waste Composite Filament for Rapid Tooling Applications
摘要
Over the last two decades, much work has been reported on the 3D printing of polylactic acid (PLA) and composites using fused filament fabrication (FFF). But hitherto, no work has been reported on reinforcing stubble waste powder (SWP) in PLA to fabricate rapid tooling (RT) with enhanced wear properties. The 12wt.% SWP was reinforced in the PLA matrix in this study, ascertained based on melt flow index (MFI) (of 10.57 g/min) using ASTM-D1238, acceptable for developing RT with FFF. The wear specimens (of Φ12.5 mm and 50 mm in length) were also printed using FFF, as per ASTM-G99. The wear analysis was performed using a pin-on-disk tribometer setup with a fixed load of 20 N and a sliding speed of 300 rpm for 5 min. The result of this study suggested that the minimum wear rate of a sample printed at the best setting of the parameter was obtained with print temperature (PT) of 210 °C, bed temperature (BT) of 60 °C, and wet wear condition (WC). The minimum and maximum wear rates were 228 µm/min and 337 µm/min for PLA-SWP composite compared to the recycled PLA with a wear rate of 356.6 µm/min. The results are supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)–based morphological analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).