Experimental investigations into abrasive flow machining (AFM) of 3D printed ABS and PLA parts
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 31 August 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The surface roughness of additively manufactured parts is usually found to be high. This limits their use in industrial and biomedical applications. Therefore, these parts required post-processing to improve their surface quality. The purpose of this study is to finish three-dimensional (3D) printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) parts using abrasive flow machining (AFM).
Design/methodology/approach
A hydrogel-based abrasive media has been developed to finish 3D printed parts. The developed abrasive media has been characterized for its rheology and thermal stability using sweep tests, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The ABS and PLA cylindrical parts have been prepared using fused deposition modeling (FDM) and finished using AFM. The experiments were designed using Taguchi (L9 OA) method. The effect of process parameters such as extrusion pressure (EP), layer thickness (LT) and abrasive concentration (AC) was investigated on the amount of material removed (MR) and percentage improvement in surface roughness (%ΔRa).
Findings
The developed abrasive media was found to be effective for finishing FDM printed parts using AFM. The microscope images of unfinished and finished showed a significant improvement in surface topography of additively manufactures parts after AFM. The results reveal that AC is the most significant parameter during the finishing of ABS parts. However, EP and AC are the most significant parameters for MR and %ΔRa, respectively, during the finishing of PLA parts.
Practical implications
The FDM technology has applications in the biomedical, electronics, aeronautics and defense sectors. PLA has good biodegradable and biocompatible properties, so widely used in biomedical applications. The ventilator splitters fabricated using FDM have a profile similar to the shape used in the present study.
Research limitations/implications
The present study is focused on finishing FDM printed cylindrical parts using AFM. Future research may be done on the AFM of complex shapes and freeform surfaces printed using different additive manufacturing (AM) techniques.
Originality/value
An abrasive media consists of xanthan gum, locust bean gum and fumed silica has been developed and characterized. An experimental study has been performed by combining printing parameters of FDM and finishing parameters of AFM. A comparative analysis in MR and %ΔRa has been reported between 3D printed ABS and PLA parts.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The financial support for the present research has been sponsored by UCOST, Dehradun (Grant no. UST-1380-MID) and FIG, IIT Roorkee (Grant no. MID/FIG/100797).
Citation
Dixit, N., Sharma, V. and Kumar, P. (2022), "Experimental investigations into abrasive flow machining (AFM) of 3D printed ABS and PLA parts", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 161-174. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-01-2021-0013
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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