On chemical assisted blending of secondary recycled ABS with bakelite and wood dust for fused filament fabrication

Abstract

ABSTRACT In past decades, several studies have been reported on the fabrication of thermoplastic matrix-based filaments by mechanical blending with a twin-screw extruder (TSE) for 3D printing applications. But hitherto little has been reported on the chemical-assisted mechanical blending of secondary (2°) recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) matrix with reinforcement of wood dust (WD) and bakelite powder (BP) for non-structural engineering applications. This study demonstrates the influence of TSE processing parameters on various properties (mechanical, rheological, and thermal) of composite filaments prepared by reinforcing WD and BP in a 2° recycled ABS matrix with the assistance of a chemical (acetone) as a novel fabrication technique. It was observed that chemical blending of reinforcements in ABS resulted in improved mechanical properties as compared to mechanical blending, however, the heat-carrying capacity of filaments with chemical assisted blending was degraded. The enhanced peak strength (PS) along with percentage break elongation (%BE) of ABS+BP-based composite filament was observed at 10 kg (load), 245°C (temperature) and 70 rpm (speed) with the corresponding values of PS and %BE as (30.93 MPa, 5.43%), respectively. The input parameters (10 kg, 225°C, 70 rpm) displayed optimum PS and %BE (35.72 MPa, 6.87%), respectively, for ABS+WD-based composite filaments.