ABSTRACT
Bamboo is a plant widely spread worldwide, and a material popular for numerous applications, comprising f.e. textiles, tableware, furniture, and structural applications, because of its combination of extensive availability, low cost, lightweight, high strength and stiffness, unmatched growing rate, and versatility as a raw material. Being also sustainable and biodegradable, and processed in forms compatible with extrusion- and powder-based additive manufacturing (AM) processes, bamboo is an attractive filler for sustainable polymers for AM, in order to produce composite materials less expensive and better performing than neat polymers.
This chapter starts with an overview of bamboo, its microstructure, composition, properties, applications, market and suppliers, followed by a description and properties of commercial bamboo-filled filaments for AM. Recent studies on experimental and improved composites for AM made of bamboo and polylactic acid (PLA), the most popular sustainable polymer for AM, are discussed. Examples of ways to enhance the performance of bamboo-PLA feedstocks for AM are: reducing voids in bamboo fiber-filled PLA filaments, increasing length/diameter ratio of bamboo fibers employed, and improving compatibility between bamboo and PLA, as reported by the research papers summarized in the last section of this chapter.
