Sustainable Natural Bio Composite for FDM Feedstocks
This paper presents the development of a new Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) material for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) feedstocks. In this study, a biodegradable polymer matrix (POLYACTIDE, PLA) was mixed with natural wood flour (WF) by Brabender mixer, and the samples produced by injection molding machine. The effect of wood was investigated as a filler material in composite FDM feedstock and the detailed formulations of compounding ratio by weight percentage. Based on results obtained, it was found that, compounding ratio of PLA80%:WF20% has a goods result on the tensile strength and PLA60% : WF40% gave a higher value of flexural strength. An increment of 20% to 40% WF filler affected the flexural strength, and hardness results. The highly filled WF content in PLA composites increases the mechanical properties of PMC material through the injection molding process. The potential of development of a sustainable composite material will be explored as the FDM feedstocks in the rapid prototyping process.