Sustainable composite fused deposition modelling filament using post-consumer recycled polypropylene

Abstract

Post-consumer recycled polypropylene (PP) with differing harakeke and hemp fibre contents was used to fabricate a range of 3D printing feedstock filaments. The most successful filaments in terms of tensile properties contained 30 wt % harakeke and had a tensile strength and Young’s modulus of 41 MPa and 3.8 GPa respectively. Comparing these results to those of post-consumer recycled PP filament, showed improvements in tensile strength and Young’s modulus of 77% and 275%. The composite that showed the least shrinkage consisted of 30 wt % harakeke with a shrinkage value of 0.34% corresponding to a net reduction of 84% relative to post-consumer PP.