Development of a Self-Optimizing System for the Identification of Ideal Processing Parameters in the FDM Process for Recycled Material

The rapid increase of Earth’s population versus Earth’s limited resources forces the industrial community to recycle waste and reduce raw materials consumption. In the shadow of Industry 4.0, digitization and automation play a significant role in increasing quality, efficiency and reducing time waste, combined with additive manufacturing techniques which help in rapid prototyping and manufacturing in wide spectrum of applications such as prosthetics, various plastic products and product development with minimal waste. This paper aims to decrease our plastic footprint by introducing an approach for an automated cycle for easily integrating plastic waste into additive manufacturing using self-optimizing fused deposition modeling (FDM) process for identification of ideal processing parameters. By means of a thermal infrared camera to monitor the inlaid filament through thermal imaging.