Engineering Commons^™

Cellulose Nanofiber-Reinforced Impact Modified Polypropylene: Assessing Material Properties From Fused Layer Modeling And Injection Molding Processing, Jordan Elliott Sanders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of cellulose nanofibers (CNF) compounded into an impact modified polypropylene (IMPP) matrix. A IMPP was used because it shrinks less than a PP homopolymer during FLM processing. An assessment of material properties from fused layer modeling (FLM), an additive manufacturing (AM) method, and injection molding (IM) was conducted. Results showed that material property measurements in neat PP were statistically similar between IM and FLM for density, strain at yield and flexural stiffness. Additionally, PP plus the coupling agent maleic anhydride (MA) showed statistically similar results in comparison of IM and …

Feasibility Of Using 3d Printed Molds For Thermoforming Thermoplastic Composites, Sunil Bhandari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel combined experimental and numerical mechanics approach for characterizing 3D printed thermoplastic materials by the fused deposition modeling process for thermoforming thermoplastic composites. The implications of this work are:

1. a methodology for model-based performance evaluation of 3D printed structural parts, and
2. an improved design of 3D printed molds for composites manufacturing, which has potential for material innovations and scaled-up applications in additive manufacturing.

The thesis formulates basic criteria for selection of thermoplastic polymer used for the 3D printed mold based on forming temperatures. The thesis creates a lattice and shell finite element model of the 3D …