Fabrication of 3D-Printable Filament using Recycled Thermoplastics and Recycled Fillers

Abstract: This degree project was performed in collaboration with ECORUB AB. Polymeric materials like thermoplastic and rubber are produced in massive quantities all over the world. However, the percentage of items that are recycled is quite low. Instead of using virgin material as the raw material for production, in this thesis, it is mainly focused on equipping the recycled raw materials to fabricate the 3D-printable filaments to be used as a feedstock material for FDM technique. This step helps to move towards a circular economy to ensure the sustainable usage of material resources. In this thesis, the material selection was constrained to recycled PETG and recycled PP. The objective of this thesis is to identify the problems faced during the utilization of recycled raw materials for 3D-printable filament production. The identified problem was resolved by tailoring the material properties by adding recycled EPDM powder as a filler material. This thermoplastic composite has shown improvement in the material and mechanical properties. The 3D-printable filaments were fabricated using thermoplastic composite materials and the mechanical properties of the parts printed using the thermoplastic composite material were investigated according to the ISO standards. Finally, it was concluded that equipping the recycled EPDM powder as a filler material with recycled PETG, showed an improvement in the impact properties of recycled PETG. When the recycled EPDM powder was combined with the recycled PP materials it helped to improve the shrinkage and the warping issues of recycled PP. The recyclability of the recycled PETG composites was investigated. Keywords: Additive Manufacturing, FDM technique, recycled raw materials, 3D-Printable Filament production faculty of Science and Technology, Uppsala University. Place of publication