Ricerc@Sapienza

Introduction
Additive manufacturing of cement-based materials is a new challenge for the construction business. Compared to traditional manufacturing, this technology offers important advantages: design freedom, reduction of production costs and times, low pollution and safety.
Printable mixture must meet certain requirements in order to guarantee good extrudability, durability and suitable mechanical properties of the final product.

A thermoplastic starch (TPS) material is developed, based on corn starch plasticized with glycerol and citric acid in a 9:3:1 ratio and further bonded with isinglass and mono-and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471). In TPS, leather fragments, in the amount of 7.5 15 or 22.5 g/100 g of dry matter, were also introduced. The mixture was heated at a maximum temperature of 80 °C, then cast in an open mold to obtain films with thickness in the range 300 ± 50 microns.