Experimental analysis on density, micro-hardness, surface roughness and processing time of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) through Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) using Box Behnken Design (BBD)

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), recently denoted by Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), is a promising polymer processing method commonly used in the additive manufacturing domain for achieving closed dimensional tolerance. Moreover, processing on Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) by FDM results in precision components manufacturing for several industrial applications. Here, an experimental attempt was conducted to find the individual and interaction effects of FDM input process parameters on ABS polymer parts. Experiments are designed based on Box Behnken Design (BBD) approach. A set of 15 experiments were carried out with varying input parameters of infill percentage (%), layer height (μm) and bed temperature (°C). These input parameters of FDM shows much influence on density, processing time/printing time, surface roughness and micro-hardness of ABS coupons/samples. It was observed that the above outputs are significantly influenced by the individual and the interaction effects of process parameters. Finally, the validation study was performed to verify the regression equation for all responses.