Preparation of Polylactic Acid/Calcium Peroxide Composite Filaments for Fused Deposition Modelling

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printers have gained significant popularity in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. In this study, a new biomaterial filament was developed by preparing a polylactic acid (PLA)/calcium peroxide (CPO) composite using wet solution mixing and extrusion. The content of CPO varied from 3% to 24% wt., and hot-melt extruder parameters were optimised to fabricate 3D printable composite filaments. The filaments were characterised using an X-ray diffraction analysis, surface morphology assessment, evaluation of filament extrudability, microstructural analysis, and examination of their rheological and mechanical properties. Our findings indicate that increasing the CPO content resulted in increased viscosity at 200 °C, while the PLA/CPO samples showed microstructural changes from crystalline to amorphous. The mechanical strength and ductility of the composite filaments decreased except for in the 6% CPO filament. Due to its acceptable surface morphology and strength, the PLA/CPO filament with 6% CPO was selected for printability testing. The 3D-printed sample of a bone scaffold exhibited good printing quality, demonstrating the potential of the PLA/CPO filament as an improved biocompatible filament for FDM 3D printing.

Enhancing Surface Temperature Uniformity in a Liquid Silicone Rubber Injection Mold with Conformal Heating Channels

“…To eliminate the air bubbles, the mixture was put into a vacuum pump (F-600, Feiling Inc. New Taipei City, Taiwan). Both the conventional and conformal heating channels were fabricated with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) filament feedstock (Thunder 3D Inc., New Taipei City, Taiwan) [18,19] using fused filament modeling (FFF) technology [20,21] (Teklink smart solution Inc., New Taipei City, Taiwan). The process parameters of FFF included a printing speed of 30 mm/s, bed temperature of 60 • C, printing temperature of 200 • C, and layer thickness of 0.1 mm.…”

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) of Thermoplastic-Based Filaments: Process and Rheological Properties—An Overview

“…Solid-like characteristics (storage modulus (G ) higher than loss modulus (G )) are then required to create an interlayer bond and to retain the shape in the post extrusion (Figure 2b). These conditions were validated in several investigations to demonstrate the suitability of 3D printing for various systems such as: (i) polymers (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene [52]); (ii) blends (polycaprolactone (PCL)/starch [53], poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/diisononyl phthalate [54]); and (iii) composites (polyamide 6/carbon fibre [28], polylactide acid (PLA)/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/nano-talc [55], PLA/calcium peroxide [56], PLA/alumina [57], thermoplastic bio-polyurethane/carbon nanotubes [25]).…”

Magnesium Hydroxide as a Versatile Nanofiller for 3D-Printed PLA Bone Scaffolds

“…Due to the wide range of processable materials, low material and use cost, environmental protection, and nontoxicity, fused deposition modeling (FDM), as the most common 3D printing technology, offers the potential for design and manufacturing in the combination of polymers and the biomedical field [ 32 , 33 ]. Furthermore, FDM has shown obvious competitiveness in the preparation of biodegradable polymer bone scaffolds including PLA [ 34 , 35 , 36 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are few studies currently available on PLA/Mg(OH) 2 porous bone scaffolds, let alone those using FDM 3D printing technology.…”