Development of Polylactic Acid (PLA) Reinforced with Water Hyacinth Fiber (WHF) as Filament for 3D Printing
Ruem Garrote ARRIBAS, April Marcelo JANIEL
Abstract. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a widely used filament for 3D Printing because of its cost-effectiveness and wide availability, but its brittleness limits its mechanical performance. This study explored water hyacinth fiber (WHF) as an alternative additive material to PLA to create filament for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing method that can improve composite mechanical and physical properties while addressing environmental concerns. In this study, PLA was mixed with WHF in different proportions (10:90, 15:85, 20:80, 25:75 and 30:70) through a twin-screw extruder. Out of the applied combinations, the 10WHF90PLA (10% WHF and 90% PLA) was determined as the best combination according to the tensile test results. This blend performed best with a tensile strength of 47.99 N/mm2, which is an 8.54% improvement over pure PLA. The strength of impact also increased by 16.75% while the flexural strength reduced slightly. One-Way ANOVA results statistically verified that fiber content was a significant influence of tensile strength (p < 0.05), where the 10% WHF blend (10WHF90PLA) had the highest F-value of samples. SEM-EDS analysis indicated that the fibers were evenly distributed, well bonded to the PLA matrix and had low porosity. The composite was also found to be highly printable with a good surface finish and no signs of nozzle clogging during the 3D printing process.
Keywords
Water Hyacinth, Polylactic Acid, Twin-Screw Extrusion, Composite Filament
Published online 5/10/2026, 8 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Ruem Garrote ARRIBAS, April Marcelo JANIEL, Development of Polylactic Acid (PLA) Reinforced with Water Hyacinth Fiber (WHF) as Filament for 3D Printing, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 66, pp 1-8, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904152-1
The article was published as article 1 of the book Advanced Materials and Sustainable Energy Technologies
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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