The Green Local 3D project1 focuses on models and experiments to facilitate the short-circuit recycling of post-consumer plastic waste to be recovered and improved through additive manufacturing (AM) processes. More specifically, the objective is to study the possibility of reusing by AM types of plastics that were previously unsorted or unrecycled. In order to be able to generate a circular economy around these plastics, we will analyze the entire value loop from the collection and distribution circuit, to their valuation in the form of printable materials by additive manufacturing via the combined control of their manufacturing processes and their formulation.
The project aims to elaborate 3D printed parts from model polymer blends representative of difficult-to-sort plastic waste. The project will be performed after selecting a “reference” lab scale machine for each AM technology. The processability of the materials (filaments and pellets) will be assessed by extruding the strand with different operating parameters in order to validate the rheological criteria in terms of extrudability and geometrical stability of the strands. Conventional mechanical testing (tensile, flexural and impact properties), as well as observation of morphologies will be carried out to qualify the performance of 3Dprinted parts. The work will ensure process robustness by using different types of AM machines (FFF or FGF), from lab to more industrial scale, as well as considering variability of the composition with the objective of designing and manufacturing model industrial demonstrators.
