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Processing and characterization of a polylactic acid/nanoclay composite for laser sintering
Author(s) -
Bai Jiaming,
Goodridge Ruth D.,
Hague Richard J.M.,
Okamoto Masami
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.23848
Subject(s) - polylactic acid , materials science , flexural strength , composite material , composite number , flexural modulus , selective laser sintering , scanning electron microscope , sintering , modulus , polymer
In this work, the feasibility of processing polylactic acid (PLA) and a PLA/nanoclay composite by laser sintering (LS) were investigated. The morphology of both the PLA and PLA/nanoclay powder was examined by scanning electron microscopy. LS process parameters, especially powder bed temperature, laser power, and laser scan count were studied. The effect of the addition of nanoclay on the thermal and flexural properties of LS PLA parts was examined. The results showed that PLA/nanoclay required a lower processing powder bed temperature compared with neat PLA. Under the same powder bed temperature, PLA/nanoclay parts exhibited an improvement in flexural modulus compared with neat PLA. Flexural modulus was increased significantly with double scan for both neat PLA and PLA/nanoclay LS parts. POLYM. COMPOS., 38:2570–2576, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers