Design of a hybrid high-throughput fused deposition modeling system for circular economy applications

Abstract

<abstract> <p>In recent years, recycling of plastics has opened several doors of advancements in the field of additive manufacturing (AM). The process of fused deposition modelling (FDM) has already been utilized for reprocessing waste plastics into filaments and finally printing them into useful products. Yet another concept of extrusion additive manufacturing (EAM) is gaining lots of attention. In this work, a screw assisted system based on EAM is designed and installed alongside a pre-existing FDM system. This system is referred to as the direct FDM (DFDM) system throughout this work. The DFDM system used operates with a 1.75 mm nozzle and has the ability of giving a high throughput. The focus of this work is to use this hybrid system (combination of FDM and DFDM systems) to print both virgin as well as recycled plastics. The scope of this work is to use one technology (either FDM or DFDM) at a time and to use both simultaneously for multi-material printing in future. After several trials of printing and setting up some printing parameters, the proposed system has been able to print with virgin as well as recycled PLA.</p> </abstract>