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Review
. 2020 Sep 17;12(9):2115.
doi: 10.3390/polym12092115.

Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing of Wood and Lignocellulosic Filled Composites

Meghan E Lamm  1 , Lu Wang  2   3 , Vidya Kishore  1 , Halil Tekinalp  1 , Vlastimil Kunc  1 , Jinwu Wang  4 , Douglas J Gardner  2 , Soydan Ozcan  1
Affiliations
Review

Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing of Wood and Lignocellulosic Filled Composites

Meghan E Lamm et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Wood and lignocellulosic-based material components are explored in this review as functional additives and reinforcements in composites for extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing. The motivation for using these sustainable alternatives in 3D printing includes enhancing material properties of the resulting printed parts, while providing a green alternative to carbon or glass filled polymer matrices, all at reduced material costs. Previous review articles on this topic have focused only on introducing the use of natural fillers with material extrusion AM and discussion of their subsequent material properties. This review not only discusses the present state of materials extrusion AM using natural filler-based composites but will also fill in the knowledge gap regarding state-of-the-art applications of these materials. Emphasis will also be placed on addressing the challenges associated with 3D printing using these materials, including use with large-scale manufacturing, while providing insight to overcome these issues in the future.

Keywords: 3D-printing); additive manufacturing; lignocellulosic biomass; materials extrusion; wood composites.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Process of fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing. (B) Single-screw extrusion printer head on a pellet-fed materials extrusion system.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plant cell walls comprised of cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose. The cellulose can be further isolated and broken down into microfibrils, CNFs, and CNCs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Challenges with filament production including voids, pores, and uneven distribution of filler. Cross-sectional optical micrographs displaying the appearance of filament (left), surface (middle) and edge (right) of the 3D printed part. Reprinted from [38] with permission from Elsevier. Copyright (2018).
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Comparison of the dimensional stability of 3D printed PP and PP copolymer. Reprinted by permission from Springer [Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry. Ref. [64], copyright 2018] [64]. Schemes of (B,C) Bond formation process between two filaments: (1) surface contacting; (2) neck growth; (3) molecular diffusion at interface and randomization. Reprinted from [17] with permission from Elsevier. Copyright (2017).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effect of infill and printing orientation patterns including (a) default, (b) cross, (c) parallel, and (d) vertical. (A) Graphical representation of these printing orientation of infill layers. (B) Infill pattern images using atomic force microscopy (AFM). (C) Tensile strength of PLA composites printing using various infill patterns. Reprinted from [91] by permission from John Wiley and Sons. Copyright (2019).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Illustrations of fracture mechanisms of CNC and CNF nanocomposites; (1) before stress, (2) during mechanical stress, and (3) after stress. Longer CNF fibrils can bridge the fracture surface, resulting in a stronger composite.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Materials extrusion AM printed direct use products. (A–C) Mobile phone shell using a wood flour composites. Reprinted from [39] with permission from Elsevier. Copyright (2018). (D) Building material printed using a poplar/PLA composite. Adapted with permission from [103]. Copyright 2019 American Chemical Society. (E) Large scale 3D printed boat roof tooling mold made from 20 wt.% wood flour and 1 wt.% cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) in a poly lactic acid (PLA) matrix [71].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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