Experimental study of UV laser interaction with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

Abstract

3D printing technology is currently used in various fields. Precision is becoming more important as the usage of the 3D printing increases. Currently, the precision of the 3D printing is still low due to limitations of manufacturing methods. Especially, the surface roughness and quality are inconsistent. While the post-treatment is necessary to achieve desired quality, there are no systematic post-treatment methods. Using a laser for the post-treatment of 3D printing would be a good option because it has many advantages for precision engineering. To use laser for the post-treatment process, it is essential to understand the interaction characteristics between the laser and the 3D printing materials. Therefore, this study uses an UV pulsed laser and the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), very popular material for 3D printing, to understand the interaction characteristics. Furthermore, the effect of surface roughness on the interaction characteristics is studied. The ABS samples are prepared by an acetone fumigation technique and CNC milling and the laser pulse with varing pulse energy (50∼340 𝜇J) is irradiated on the surface. It is confirmed that laser and ABS interaction have a certain pattern as the surface roughness decreases. For the sample prepared by the acetone fumigation technique, heat affected zone decreases with decreasing the pulse energy. We also observed that the sample prepared by end milling requires higher laser ablation threshold.