Process Capability of Mechanical Blended and Chemical Assisted Mechanical Blended ABS-Graphene Composite

Abstract

Recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is one of the highly acceptable thermoplastic for fabrication of functional prototypes by fused deposition modeling (FDM) based additive manufacturing (AM) process. The present work highlights the process capability analysis of mechanical blending (MechB) and chemical assisted mechanical blending (ChemB) techniques for preparation of ABS matrix based composite by reinforcement of graphene nano-particles for FDM based 3D printing applications. This study is an extension of previously reported work on ABS-graphene composite prepared by secondary (2°) recycling/ MechB and tertiary (3°) recycling/ ChemB. The feedstock filaments of ABS-graphene composite prepared by MechB and ChemB for FDM were tested for tensile strength and Shore-D hardness. Based upon optimized input parameters/settings, statistical analysis was performed on peak strength and Shore-D hardness of different compositions/proportions. The outcomes of study outlines that ChemB resulted in development of better ABS-graphene composite for 3D printing applications. The results obtained for process capability indices (Cp and Cpk) in form of the histogram and normal distribution plot are reported to support the research outcomes.