Polyolefin Elastomer Toughened Polylactic Acid Composites With Low Extrusion Expansion for Quick Fused Deposition Modeling Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

ABSTRACT Polylactic acid (PLA), a degradational plastic, faces challenges in additive manufacturing due to high cost and low toughness. This study developed an innovative PLA random copolymer‐based composite system by incorporating maleic anhydride‐grafted polyethylene‐octene (MA‐POE) and bamboo powder to achieve a composite with low cost and superb mechanical strength for high‐speed 3D printing. Furthermore, a fused deposition modeling 3D‐printing approach was employed with a speed of 200 mm/s to enhance both processing efficiency and mechanical performance. The tensile and impact strength of the resulting composites increased by 33% and 24% after the incorporation of bamboo powders, respectively. The addition of MA‐POE significantly enhanced the toughness up to 17.36 KJ/m 2 , a 50% improvement compared to PLA/bamboo composites. Both bamboo powder and MA‐POE decreased the melt flow index from 67.2 g/10 min of pure PLA to 13.5 g/10 min of the resulting composites with 15% POE and 15% bamboo fiber. The entanglement effect of polymer molecular chains between PLA and bamboo powder, as well as MA‐POE, reduced die swell of the extruded filament, enabling more consistent strand dimensions, thereby improving printing accuracy and quality.