Session: 02-01 Ceramics

Paper Number: 96726

96726 - Development of Leather-Polymer Composites Adapted for Additive Manufacturing 

Leather is a natural material, and it is the sub-product of the meat transformation industry. It undergoes a series of treatments until being applied as raw material for a series of applications, namely clothes, footwear, leather goods, so on. The major treatment that leather materials are submitted is the tanning process. The typical composition of skin is about 29% collagen, 2% keratin, 0.3% elastin and the remaining percentage is represented by water and some minor component fats and inorganic substances [1].

Only about 20-25% of raw animal skin reaches to the final stage of the tanning process. The rest is usually disposed in landfills or incinerated, mainly due to the difficulty of recycling and the costs related to the transportation and storage. The present work is part of a project that proposes to add value to the leather wastes generated by the tanning industry. The main goal is to developed leather-based formulations adapted to additive manufacturing technologies, namely Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). Leather scraps obtained from several types of tanning methods were used. These residues (scraps approx. 5 mm wide and up to 15 cm long) were grinded into a fine powder (<100 μm) using a planetary ball mill. Collagen, leather’s main component, struggles to maintain its stability at temperatures superior to 100 °C. Above this temperature, collagen shrinks. In this sense, thermal experiments were conducted to determine the amount of contact time leather can withstand, at temperatures above 100 °C, without degradation. Leather-Polymer Composites (LPC) with different volume ratios of leather powders were prepared. Polylactic acid (PLA) was selected as matrix. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) were performed to evaluate the thermal behaviour of the developed LPC. In addition, chemical and morphological analyses were conducted to characterize the LPC. The formulation with the adequate behaviour was used to prepare a filament and processed by FFF.

Presenting Author: Sílvio Abrantes ESAN - Universidade de Aveiro

Presenting Author Biography: PhD Student in Chemical Engineering. Researching on Leather/Polymer composites for aditive manufacturing aplications.

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