AccScience Publishing / MSAM / Volume 3 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.36922/msam.4084
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Material extrusion-based printing optimization of recycled HDPE filaments made from used milk jugs

Soek Po Phillis Teng1,2 Chor Hiong Tee1 Hwee Boon Tan2 Kah Fai Leong2,3*
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1 Physical Education and Sports Science Academic Department, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2 School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
3 Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Submitted: 29 June 2024 | Accepted: 8 August 2024 | Published: 6 September 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Fused deposition modeling printing is a material extrusion (MEX) process that has gained popularity over the years due to its increased affordability and greater versatility. There is a wide variety of MEX printing technologies and a broad spectrum of materials that can be 3D printed, ranging from metallic to non-metallic materials. MEX has emerged as the most common technology in consumer-grade, desktop 3D printers for printing thermoplastics, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is a widely used thermoplastic material for product packaging. The sheer availability of recyclable or recycled HDPE (rHDPE) from used packaging has led to efforts to apply it in MEX printing. However, rHDPE presents challenges as a filament material, including issues such as part detachment from the print bed and high warpage. The focus of this study is to determine the optimal conditions that can mitigate, if not eliminate, the print bed adhesion problems associated with printing rHDPE filaments. This was achieved by conducting a series of tests to address these challenges, including part removability relating to the shear strength of print bed adhesion to identify the necessary range of print bed adhesion and corresponding parameters.

Keywords
Material extrusion
Fused deposition modeling
Recycling
Additive manufacturing
3D printing
High-density polyethylene
Funding
This project was funded with the support of Singapore’s Economic Development Board Innovation Development Scheme (grant number: S11-1191-IDS).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9635 Published by AccScience Publishing