Investigation of printability of a commercial biodegradable polymer

• Main Author: Tan, Tedmond Ting Xuan
• Other Authors: Yeong Wai Yee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78381
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

It is important in studying and understanding the various way in which filaments properties being characterized. In order to 3D-print filaments research have been done on both thermal and mechanical properties of the new biodegradable Enviplast filament, granulate, pellet or flakes. In this project, pellets are extruded into filament. During the filament extrusion process, temperature and speed control played an important factor in producing ideal filament condition where little or substantial bubble formation is presented. Different conditions affect the filament properties such as darker filament color, production time or even bubble formation. The mechanical property was determined by tensile testing in NTU biological laboratory. By using the Instron tensile machine, test sample material undergoes tension. From the graph, an important factor such as Young's modulus, ultimate tensile strength, and fracture point was obtained. The thermal property was determined by DSC and TGA in the material laboratory. It is imperative to examine the material thermal stability. From the result we obtained, data of the polymer are characterized into their respective melting temperature, glass transition temperature, and thermal degradation temperature. Other tests such as evaporative and degradation test were also done to evaluate the material physical changes when undergoing certain conditions. The huge amount of bubble was formed during the pellet extrusion process. Therefore evaporative test was conducted to measure the approximate amount of moisture content in the pellet. The polymer is said to be biodegradable. Hence, the degradation test was performed to observe the degradation rate. Those gather result are important factors in identifying the printability and conditions of the biodegradable Enviplast filament.