Résumé
Sustainable materials are being used more commonly with additive manufacturing (AM) technique toenable the manufacture of functional products in a sustainable and economically efficient way [1]. Selectivelaser sintering (SLS), is an AM technique that shows potential in fusing and solidifying biomass powders into3D porous materials, paving the way in technical applications [2, 3]. However, because of the low thermalstability of biomass under laser sintering, petroleum thermoplastic polymers, such as nylon, are often mixedwith biomass powders to increase their processability for SLS applications [4]. In this latter situation, theinterfacial interactions between biomass powder and thermoplastic remain one of the most importantchallenges that need to be addressed [5]. It is therefore important to develop a method that enables SLSprinting of biomass powders directly.In this work, we have developed an AM process for biomass powders using a laser sintering process with acommercial CO2 laser. The laser system is equipped with a chamber that has nitrogen flowing through it toprevent combustion of the powder. By using a layer-by-layer deposition technique, followed by lasersintering, a 3D structure can be directly printed from vegetal waxes and lignocellulosic composite powders.The morphological, chemical, and mechanical properties of the prepared 3D structures have beencharacterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) anddynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The processability of wax powders with different particlesizes has been studied. This method is simple and requires no additional chemical or physical process, and itis potentially scalable for industrial applications.