From Trash to Treasure in Additive Manufacturing: Recycling of Polymer Powders by Acid Catalyzed Hydrolysis

A persistent problem in laser powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) of polymers is the accumulation of used feedstock material that cannot be reprocessed due to alterations in the physical and chemical structure upon ageing at elevated temperatures. The chemical ageing of polyamide 12, the most frequently used feedstock in PBF of polymers, occurs due to solid-state post-condensation during the AM process and can be reversed by appropriate processing. This paper investigates the application of acid-catalyzed hydrolytic reconditioning to restore virgin powder properties from used and annealed feedstock material, highlighting a pathway to more sustainability in AM. The proposed method is optimized towards PBF-printing relevant properties and mechanical characteristics of parts build with the recycled feedstock material, which are benchmarked against conventional powder refreshing strategies.