Study of Filament’s Polymer Composites to Increase Mechanical Properties of the Material for Additive Manufacturing

Cham, Chung Lek (2020) Study of Filament’s Polymer Composites to Increase Mechanical Properties of the Material for Additive Manufacturing. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

Text ChamChungLek_Full Text.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (3MB)

Abstract

The title for this research is study of filament’s polymer composites to increase mechanical properties of the material for additive manufacturing. The direction of technology advancement has been very much focused on additive manufacturing because of its ability to create parts with complex geometry, high production rate and save material cost. However, the application of additive manufacturing is still limited because of the low mechanical strength possessed by the additive manufactured parts. Hence, this study is carried out to look for high performance polymer composites that can be used for additive manufacturing. The objective of this research is to produce nanocomposite material that can be used for additive manufacturing and carry out tests to study the mechanical properties of the said nanocomposite. It is believed that Cellulose Nanocrystal has the ability to improve the mechanical properties of a polymer when it is mixed into the polymer matrix while PLA is selected to be the matrix due to its affordability and availability in the market. The study of PLA incorporated with 1, 3 and 5 wt% of Cellulose Nanocrystal has been done to produce polymer composites. The tests that has been used to determine the mechanical properties of the polymer composites were be tensile test, flexural test and Izod impact resistance test. The results from this research has shown that the best weight percentage for PLA-NCC composite is 1% which can give about 5% of increase to the ultimate tensile strength and Young’s Modulus compared to pure PLA. Having PLA-NCC composite at 1% weight percentage can also increase its impact resistance by 20%. However, 5% weight percentage of PLA NCC yielded the weakest in both ultimate tensile strength and Young’s modulus, it obtained the highest increase in maximum bending stress and flexural modulus which is 25% and 31.7% respectively. After the completion of this research, application of nanocomposite in additive manufacturing is possible.