A new additive manufacturing technology for biobased polyurethane composites

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Polyurethane (PU) is one of the most commonly employed materials in our daily live. As it can be easily fabricated in a large quantity with tailorable mechanical properties, PU is commonly utilized in a wide range of applications including packaging, insulation and sealings. Despite PU's excellent mechanical properties and performance, there is an increasing trend of environmental concerns for PU based material in recent years Currently, one of the most practiced research approaches for minimize the environmental impact of PU material is to integrate sustainable and bio resources during the manufacturing process. The resultant product would be partially biodegradable when it reaches its life cycle thus minimizing the environmental impact. The goal of this research is to develop a new additive manufacturing technology (3D printing) for fabricating biobased polyurethane composites. In this context, the short-term objectives will be to modify and develop the PU formulation that can be integrated with the available 3D printing technology, to design and build a customized 3D printer to demonstrate the printing ability of PU, and finally to characterize the mechanical properties of the printed material and verified if the material performance is able to meet the testing standards. As the teams develop an innovative technology, the outcome of the research will be very beneficial to the manufacturing sector especially for targeting biobased and low carbon footprint materials. The development of biobased PU composites will ensure Canada's leading position in global green manufacturing and technologies through applications of state-of-the-art additive manufacturing techniques for biobased materials.