Production of the Polyethylene Terephthalate Filament by Facile Filament Machine for 3D Printer

The aim of this research is to produce filament from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle waste for 3D printer. This research fabricates the cutting machine and facile filament machine. The cutting machine uses of the blade as a cutter for cutting the PET ribbon.
The facile filament machine was composed from some parts of an old 3D printer, such as an extruder, heater, gear, stepping motor, LCD monitor and 3D print controller. For the cutting machine, the width of the PET ribbon was studied by the cutting process. The results show that the cutting machine can cut the PET ribbon in the width range of 8, 10, 12 and 14 mm. All width of PET ribbon were produced to the PET filament through the facile filament machine. The PET filament was monitored by the optical microscope. The results show that the PET ribbon with a width of 10 mm can produce the PET filament completely. Moreover, the PET filament produced from PET ribbon at 10 mm was completely printed the cubic shape by the 3D printer. This research indicated that the cutting machine and facile filament machine for PET bottle can be successfully fabricated and can produce the PET filament used for the 3D printer.