Development of eco-friendly kenaf fiber reinforced ABS (KRABS) composite filament of fused deposition modeling

Abstract

Application of natural fiber in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology has been studied by past researchers and attracted many of the FDM practitioners. The development process of this type of material for filament of FDM could be challenging as the natural fibers carried wide range of characteristics and they are unique. In this study, the potential of the local natural fiber which is kenaf is studied by developing the kenaf fiber reinforced ABS (KRABS) composite as a filament of FDM. The process includes four stages of activities which are fiber preparation, mixing process, extrusion process and printing process. At the final stage, the printability of the KRABS filament is examined by the physical quality of the printed KRABS objects. The dimensional measurement analysis and surface roughness testing is performed. Comparison has been made between the printed pure ABS object and KRABS object. As a result, printed KRABS object exhibited non-significant error in dimensional accuracy testing by obtained 0.879 % of error. In surface roughness testing, KRABS object exhibited 2.43 µm of Ra which is less than pure ABS. In addition, eco-design web analysis is performed to evaluate the environmental impact of the KRABS filament. Lower score was gained by the KRABS filament, compared than pure ABS filament for environmental impact. In conclusion, KRABS filament has a great potential to be as an alternative filament in FDM technology that environmentally friendly and comparable properties with the polymer filament. Further study needs to be conducted to evaluate the material properties of KRABS filament.