Development of filament extruder using recycled plastic material for 3D printer

Abstract

Waste pollution has been a perennial problem faced by generations of Filipinos, especially wastes that pollute Philippine waters. Despite the apparent problems and issues that this poses, the production of numerous virgin plastics in the form of PET and ABS still continuously grows especially in the manufacturing industries soft drink and toy. The idea of fabricating an extruder machine that could be used to melt waste plastic bottles is perceived to help lessen the plastic waste. Hence, this study aimed to transform extruded plastic material into a filament with a constant diameter size output to be utilized as load to a 3D printer. The extruder machine makes use of cut-out plastics from plastic waste bottles, which would undergo a heating process of 220-260°. This is the requirement to melt down plastic wastes. It also uses an Arduino that will control the device’s whole system and the nozzle that would help shape the extruded plastic to a constant diameter output of 1.00 mm to 1.75 mm in order to fit to a 3D printer. The 3D printer serves as the testing device for the extruded filament. It was found out that in producing a constant diameter, the speed of the motor had a very important role in giving the acceptablefilament, as well as the fan that helped the melted plastic to cool down. On the other hand, in printing an object to the 3D printer using the extracted filament out of recycled plastic bottles meant that the design project was a success.