Makerspace: Recycling printed PLA to spool of PLA

Arenburg, Evan; Appiah Kubi, Samuel

Student Work

Makerspace: Recycling printed PLA to spool of PLA

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3D printing has become a large industry in the world, with the technology being used in many different fields. However, the use of 3D printing has led to an influx of plastic waste, most notably PLA plastics. This PLA waste can range to support material used during the printing process, failed prints, and completed prints that have served their purpose. This can be seen at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Makerspace located at Innovation Studio, having a prototyping lab that runs a large amount of 3D printers for students to utilize. Due to many classes and projects having a dependence on rapid prototyping, the makerspace is constantly using PLA to print plastic parts, which in turn creates more and more PLA waste. To solve this problem, previous students attempted to build a system to recycle PLA plastic into new filament to use in the 3D printers. There were two iterations of the project, each using their own method of attempting to recycle PLA. The goal of the project is to improve upon these previous iterations and find potential flaws that are hindering the recycling process to make a more efficient recycling system. These iterations utilized a system to grind plastic parts into smaller pieces, then feed these pieces into a hot end, softening the plastic and causing it to extrude as a 1.75mm strand of filament. This would then leave the hot end to be collected in a spool, ready to be used in a 3D printer.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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