Fused deposition modelling of flexible kenaf fiber/thermoplastic polyurethane composites

Abstract

This work explores the feasibility of fused deposition modelling (FDM) to produce kenaf fiber/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composites. Internal mixer was used for mixing different weight percentage (0, 5 and 10 wt %) of kenaf fiber with TPU before being extruded to produce filament for FDM feed stock. Addition of kenaf fiber was found to give benefits on dimensional stability of the printed samples which is importance for its implementation in FDM. TPU filled with 10wt% of kenaf fibre showed improvements in hardness and Young modulus of 15% and 49%. However, the tensile strength, elongation at break and density of the printed samples decreased with increasing kenaf fiber loading. This could be explained due to increase of voids and porosity within the material and poor wettability between TPU matrix and kenaf fiber which is evidenced by SEM observation.