Abstract
An effort is made in this work to appraise the surface characteristics of machined expandable polystyrene (EPS) with a novel 3D printed thermoplastic acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) tool. Linear grooves on EPS were made on a vertical milling machine that was modified to conduct experiments in the laboratory. The tests were designed as per the Taguchi L9 based factorial design of experimentation while varying process parameters such as depth of cut, spindle speed, and feed rate. The machining responses dimensional accuracy and surface roughness of the machined grooves were studied. Furthermore, the surface topography of the machined specimens was considered to investigate the mechanism of material removal in response to the processing conditions. Moreover, mathematical models developed for the prediction of the output responses showed a significant correlation with the experimental results. The results of the statistical study indicate that the surface roughness is influenced by the spindle speed and dimensional accuracy by the depth-of-cut. Overall, the findings of the experimental work advocated the feasibility of 3D printed thermoplastic tools for machining soft polymeric materials. It can become a useful alternative for mass and batch production.
Highlights
In today’s competitive world, industries are rigorously spotlighting on essential aspects such as time, quality, and cost of products to manage the immense pressure [1]
The present study investigates the efficiency of the FDM-based ABS tool for machining expandable polystyrene (EPS)
It was found that the EPS is highly thermal sensitive, and its structure consists of micro-balls that tend to squeeze upon thermal stimulus
Summary
In today’s competitive world, industries are rigorously spotlighting on essential aspects such as time, quality, and cost of products to manage the immense pressure [1]. Printing methods are often explicit with their specific feedstock materials as compared to conventional. Since the invention of 3D printing technologies in the 1980s, the pace has gradually shifted from prototyping to rapid manufacturing while growing its customization level [7]. In today’s manufacturing scenario where the design of the industrial products changes very often, owing to the change in the lifestyle of the customers, 3D printing technology is the only available option that can cope with sudden design changes quickly and cost-effectively [8]. The continuous technological innovations in Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) is one of the mainly preferred commercial feedstock material; alternative materials could be fabricated [22,23]. The literature reveals that researchers have developed FDM’s in-house feedstock by utilizing a range of polymer matrices [24,25,26] and reinforcements [27,28,29] to meet sophisticated requests of highly demanding end-user applications [30,31]
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