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Fused deposition modelling of natural fibre/polylactic acid composites

Abstract
Fused deposition modelling is a simple additive manufacturing technology utilising fine filament extrusion of predominantly thermoplastic materials to build 3D objects layer by layer. This research explores the feasibility and the factors involved in using fused deposition modelling to produce natural fibre reinforced composite components. Uniform 3-mm filaments of both hemp and harakeke (Phormium tenax) in varying weight percentages within polylactic acid (PLA) polymer were successfully produced and used to print tensile test samples. Tensile test results supported harakeke to be a useful fibre in terms of mechanical properties achieved which surpassed the Young’s modulus and tensile strength of plain PLA samples by 42.3% and 5.4%, respectively.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Stoof, D., Pickering, K. L., & Zhang, Y. (2017). Fused deposition modelling of natural fibre/polylactic acid composites. Journal of Composites Science, 1(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs1010008
Date
2017
Publisher
MDPI
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).