RT Journal Article
T1 Evaluation of the Technical Viability of Distributed Mechanical Recycling of PLA 3D Printing Wastes
A1 Beltrán González, Freddys
A1 Arrieta Dillon, Marina Patricia
A1 Moreno Escribano, Eduardo
A1 Gaspar, Gerald
A1 Martínez Muneta, María Luisa
A1 Carrasco Gallego, Ruth
A1 Yáñez Gutiérrez, Susana
A1 Hidalgo Carvajal, David
A1 Orden Hernández, María Ulagares De La
A1 Martínez Urreaga, Joaquín
AB 3D printing PLA wastes were recovered from a well-known reference grade and from different sources. The recovered wastes were subjected to an energic washing step and then reprocessed into films by melt-extrusion, followed by compression molding to simulate the industrial processing conditions. The obtained materials were characterized and the optical, structural, thermal and crystallization behavior are reported. The mechanical recycling process leads to an increase of the crystallinity and a decrease of the intrinsic viscosity of the formulations, particularly in the sample based on blends of different 3D-PLA wastes. Moreover, the obtained films were disintegrated under composting conditions in less than one month and it was observed that recycled materials degrade somewhat faster than the starting 3D-PLA filament, as a consequence of the presence of shorter polymer chains. Finally, to increase the molecular weight of the recycled materials, the 3D-PLA wastes were submitted to a solid-state polymerization process at 110, 120, and 130 °C, observing that the recycled 3D-wastes materials based on a well-known reference grade experiences an improvement of the intrinsic viscosity, while that coming from different sources showed no significant changes. Thus, the results show that 3D printing PLA products provides an ideal environment for the implementation of distributed recycling program, in which wastes coming from well-known PLA grades can successfully be processed in films with good overall performance.
PB MDPI
SN 2073-4360
YR 2021
FD 2021-04-12
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/7492
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/7492
LA eng
NO European Union’s Horizon 2020
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España (MINECO)
NO Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 7 abr 2025