Abstract
The paper presents the study of wood-polymer filament for fused filament fabrication (FDM) printing. 3D printing is used in the manufacture of products of a complex shape, which means it can be an integral part of the production of hardscape, furniture decor, and childrenʼs toys. Additive manufacturing allow to switch over to zero waste production, as well as to use renewable biological raw materials. The use of wood-polymer composites in manufacture and inlay of furniture provides an opportunity to reduce the costs of the finished product. Filaments (1.7 mm diameter) were made of a filler/binder (wood flour/polylactide) mixture on a single screw extruder. As a result of studying the filament morphology, it was found that the filler is evenly distributed over the volume of the binder in the form of particles of a spherical or elongated shape with sizes from 0.2 to 1.2 μm. The size of the zones with an enhanced concentration of the filler particles vary between 2.7 and 9.8 μm. Voids were found in the wood-polymer filament sections obtained perpendicular to the filamentʼs length; the void shape is arbitrary; the void size ranges from 9.5 to 32.5 μm. The study of the filament sections in the crossed Nicols mode showed a mosaic pattern of birefringence. The size of aggregates of spherical particles with intense birefringence varies in the range from 4.5 to 55.1 μm. Probably, the particles of wood flour are the nucleation centre of crystallization of the binder (polylactide), which is manifested in the formation of the birefringence zones. The study of the temperature dependence of viscosity of the wood-polymer composite showed nosignificant differences WPC filaments in comparison with PLA filaments. The glass transition temperature was set to 58.19 °C and the melting point temperature was 214.00 °C, which confirms the similarity with PLA filaments. The results of water absorption tests showed that the water mass fraction in the samples increases significantly with the growth of the filler content in the material and the thickness of the printed layer. The results of measuring the contact angle of the test samples showed that water-dispersion varnishes partially wet the surface of the wood-polymer composite, creating the conditions for adhesive interaction. Determination of tensile strength and the tensile modulus of elasticity showed that at 100 % filling density the samples made of wood-polymer composition are inferior to the samples made of PLA, however, they exceed in comparison with the samples made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic. The results of a thermal imaging study made it possible to detect a rapid decrease in the temperature of the model layers from the levels arising at the exit of the nozzle to the values of the model middle zone and to divide the thermal zones onto threelevels and acknowledged the similarity with the samples made of PLA filaments. For citation: Govyadin I.K., Chubinsky A.N. The Study of PLA-Based Wood-Polymer Composite Properties. Lesnoy Zhurnal [Russian Forestry Journal], 2020, no. 2, pp. 129–145. DOI: 10.37482/0536-1036-2020-2-129-145
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