Optimizing Surface Texture and Coating Thickness of Nickel Coated ABS-3D Parts

Abstract

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the additive manufacturing technique frequently used in industry due to its simplicity of operation and ability to fabricate parts with locally controlled properties. Material constraints is a major demerit of FDM build parts apart from the low surface finish. Most of the FDM machines utilizes plastic materials such as Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), Poly Lactic Acid(PLA), etc. Metal FDM machines are being used now a days but it is still in a very nascent stage. In order to build complicated functional parts and to achieve better mechanical and electrical properties, weight and cost reduction it is necessary to manufacture ABS parts by FDM and metallise the surface. In this study, Nickel has been considered as the coating material due to its low cost and aesthetic look. Apart from controlling the important machining parameters such as raster angle (RA) and air gaps (AG), coating parameters such as 'Voltage' (V) and 'Time of metal plating' (T) are also considered under controlled environment. The result showed significant improvement in the surface finish of ABS-FDM build parts.