DESIGN AND

DEVELOPMENT OF
PLASTIC FILAMENT
EXTRUDER
BY
KALU PROSPER CHIDIEBERE (MOUAU/13/28308)
EBERE MICHAEL CHINONSO (MOUAU/13/28479)
OBASI CHRISTIAN IBEABUCHI (MOUAU/13/27992
ISADO EDWARD OSHIORIAME (MOUAU/13/28278)

SUPERVISOR:
ENGR. C. N. NWOGU
 1.0 INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND
• 3D printing also known as additive manufacturing is a process of
fabricating 3D objects from digital file that are created from a CAD
software. There are various methods of 3D printing.
• Melting and laying plastic filament down to slowly build up the model
in layers in a process known as "Fused filament fabrication (FFF)" or
"Fused deposition modeling (FDM)".
• The material used by the FDM 3D printer is in the filament form and
this plastic filament is produced by a plastic filament extruder. A
filament extruder is a device that produces a spool of filament from
raw thermoplastic materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
(ABS) pellets
 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

HIGH COST OF PROTOTYPING USING FDM 3D

PRINTERS AS A RESULT OF HIGH FILAMENT COST
AND
FILAMENT UNAVAILABILITY AS A RESULT OF
INABILITY TO RECYCLE WASTE 3D PRINT FILAMENTS
CREATES A NEED FOR A PLASTIC FILAMENT
EXTRUDER
 1.2 OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this work is to design and develop a plastic
filament extruder to be used for 3D printing by manufactures and
makers in Nigeria. Specific objectives includes;
• Development of a plastic filament extruder with locally sourced
materials.
• Performance analysis of the developed plastic filament extruder and
hence determine its operation parameters.
• Comparative evaluation of the filaments produced to ensure accurate
printing of parts.
2.0 REVIEW OF EXISTING PLASTIC
FILAMENT DESIGNS
PROTOCYCLER

FILABOT
 3.0 DESIGN CONCEPTS AND
CONSIDERATIONS
The design, material selection and development of the PLASTIC FILAMENT
EXTRUDER were based on the following concepts and considerations:
• The plastic filament extruder was fabricated using locally sourced and available
materials for easy operation and maintenance incase of breakdown.
• Due to cost, one PID temperature controller was used to control the temperature of
the heating band.
• To make the transportation of the machine easier, the barrel, hopper, auger, die,
band heater and the various components of the machine can be easily
disassembled and assembled by one person within a short period of time.
• Due to cost, the extrudate was cooled with air from fan.
• PMW speed controller will be used to regulate speed to a given rpm rather than
gear or belt drives for compactness, accuracy and simplicity of the machine.
 3.1 DESIGN CALCULATIONS
The following equations were used to determine the dimensions and
specifications of the various components/parts of the developed PLASTIC
FILAMENT EXTRUDER;
Extrusion barrel Volume:
Vb = AbLb
screw shaft diameter:
16T
Dc =
0.27πδo
−1 L
Screw helix angle,𝛉 = tan
πDb
Screw flight width, e = bsin θ
 Design calculations (contd)
Total mass flow = Mass drag/rotational flow - mass pressure flow.
Mass drag/rotational flow;
Pρm Vbz WHm
Q md =
2
mass pressure flow;
Pρm WH3 𝜕p
Q mp =
12η 𝜕z
Throughput of the extruder;
60π
TP = D2s − D2c LsNφρm
4
 Design calculations (contd)
Maximum pressure in extruder:
6πDs Lm Nη
Pmax =
H2 tanθ
Extrusion barrel thickness:
Pmax Db
t= +C
2σt
Volume capacity of the extruder;
Vm = φVtotal
Die Heater power:
wCsp T2 −T1
Ph =
t
 Design calculations (contd)

Selection of Prime Mover:

Ps = 0.7355CLsQmt

Extrudate cooling;
Hc = QmtCp(Tm - Tf)
 3.2 Description and operational process of the
machine:
The plastic filament extruder consists of the hopper, barrel, auger, die
and cooling fan which are the major extrusion components. Figure
below shows the exploded isometric view of the machine.
 Description and operational process of the
machine: (contd)
Raw plastic pellets are fed to the machine through the feed hopper conveyed
by the screw as it rotates, to the die where it is discharged as filament. The
hopper is a conical frustum 3D printed using high impact polystyrene of 3mm
thickness with top dimensions of 70mm by 60mm and height of 79mm. The
horizontal extrusion barrel mounted on a square plate via a circular flanged
joint, is a cylindrical structure made from a 19mm internal diameter pipe with
thickness of 3mm and length of 335mm and it is made of mild steel. This
extrusion barrel has an 18mm outer diameter screw/auger inside it that rotates
to convey the plastic pellets from left to right towards the die. The screw has
a constant pitch, flight angle and channel width of 30mm, 26.7° and 24mm
respectively. The barrel transfers heat to the conveyed pellets from an 80W,
220V band heater clamped on it. The barrel discharges the molten pellets
through the die which is screwed at the right end of the barrel. The die is
made of 360 brass with 1.75mm hole (orifice) which is the diameter of the
extruded plastic filament.
 3.3 DETERMINATION OF THROUGHPUT AND
EXTRUSION EFFICIENCY OF THE PLASTIC
FILAMENT EXTRUDER
The throughput and filament extrusion efficiency of the machine were
Determined as 10.778kg/hr. and 82.922% respectively for HIPS,
13.49kg/hr. and 88.154% for PLA and 10.264kg/hr. 73.88% ABS. using
the following equation;
mf
TP = and
t
100mf
η=
mp
 Experimental evaluation results for PLA
S/No. Extrusion Mass of Time Throughput, Extruded Extrusion
Temperatu extruded taken, t TP filament efficiency,
re, T (˚C) filament, (sec) (Kg/hr.) diameter, d η
Experimental evaluation results mf (mm) (%)
for HIPS (kg)
S/No. Extrusion Mass of Time Throughput, Extruded Extrusion 1 250 0.46 120 13.56 1.65 91.8
Temperat extruded taken, TP filament efficiency
ure, T (˚C) filament, t (Kg/hr.) diameter, ,η 2 240 0.45 120 13.49 1.50 91.8
mf (sec) d (%)
(kg) (mm)
3 230 0.43 115 13.41 1.53 87.8
1 250 0.44 133 11.92 1.63 89.80
4 220 0.42 114 13.32 1.55 85.7
2 240 0.42 136 11.12 1.65 85.71
5 210 0.41 108 13.67 1.59 83.67
3 230 0.41 136 10.85 1.64 83.7

Average 230 0.434 115 13.49 1.564 88.154

4 220 0.39 139 10.11 1.65 79.6

5 210 0.37 135 9.89 1.65 75.8

Average 230 0.406 136 10.778 1.644 82.922

 Experimental evaluation
results for ABS
S/No. Extrusio Mass of Time Throughput Extruded Extrusion
n extruded taken, , TP filament efficiency
Tempera filament, t (Kg/hr.) diameter, ,η Extruded filament diameter recorded at different
ture, T mf (sec) d (%)
extrusion temperatures of the polymers
(˚C) (kg) (mm)
1 250 0.39 133 10.51 1.73 79.6 3500

EXTRUSION TEMPERATURE (°C)

3000
2 240 0.38 126 10.88 1.71 77.6
2500
3 230 0.36 127 10.25 1.70 73.5
2000
4 220 0.35 127 9.91 1.68 71.4
1500
5 210 0.33 122 9.77 1.65 67.3 1000
Average 230 0.362 127 10.264 1.694 73.88 500
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
EXTRUDATE DIAMETER (MM)
 4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A plastic filament extruder for producing 1.75mm plastic filaments for FDM type 3D
printers was designed, developed and tested. The machine extrudes plastics into filaments of
1.75mm diameter for 3D printing.The performance test analysis conducted reveals that the
machine extrudes plastic pellets (HIPS, PLA and ABS) by conveying, melting, forcing
through die and cooling the filament extrudate with the average efficiency of 82.922% and
processing time of 136 second for HIPS, 88.154% and 115 seconds for PLA and 73.88%
and 127 seconds for ABS, hence making filaments cheap and readily available.
This study recommends;
• Machine be optimized for better and improved efficiency with respect to the capacity
indicator.
• FDM 3D printer owners should adopt the plastic filament extruder which will eliminate
the unavailability rate of plastic filaments due to its cost.
• Running this machine with a filament spooler for proper haul up and packaging.
Thank You For
Your Audience