DESIGN AND TESTING OF A BACKPACK SIZED MICROFACTORY FOR CONVERTING PLA PET AND HDPE WASTE INTO 3D PRINTED PARTS
Keywords:
circular manufacturing, humanitarian engineering, off grid manufacturing, post consumer thermoplastics, recycled filament qualityAbstract
Plastic waste in remote and resource constrained settings is difficult to recover through centralised recycling systems. This study designed and assessed a backpack sized microfactory that integrates shredding, filament extrusion, and fused filament fabrication for PLA, PET, and HDPE waste. The experimental programme assessed packed mass and volume, polymer identity and contamination records, filament diameter across 20 sequential batches per material, primary tensile performance of five ASTM D638 Type I recycled specimens per material, and a separate matched validation comparison of seven recycled and seven virgin specimens per material. The packed system weighed 14.2 kg and occupied 72 L. Mean filament-diameter standard deviations were 0.022 mm for PLA, 0.035 mm for PET, and 0.041 mm for HDPE around a nominal 1.75 mm diameter. Primary recycled-material mean ultimate tensile strengths were 42.1 MPa, 38.6 MPa, and 22.4 MPa for PLA, PET, and HDPE, respectively. The voltage-hold control completed all three repeated power-fluctuation cycles, while mean energy use for a 100 g waste-to-product cycle was 185.6 ± 1.5 Wh. The findings establish the initial performance of the integrated prototype under laboratory and controlled environmental conditions.
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