On rheological, mechanical, thermal, wear and morphological properties of melamine formaldehyde reinforced recycled ABS for sustainable manufacturing

Abstract

This study outline the procedure of filament fabrication for fused deposition modelling (FDM), based upon rheological, mechanical, thermal, wear and morphological characterization as a case study of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) - melamine formaldehyde (MF) composite. It has been ascertained that with increase in proportion of MF in ABS, viscosity is improved and melt flow index (MFI) is reduced significantly. As regards to the wear behavior is concerned it has been observed that ABS-MF (12.5 wt.%) composite has shown minimum weight loss and porosity. For the mechanical properties of the composite, experimental results show increased brittleness of the samples with addition of MF reinforcement. The thermal stability analysis was performed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for virgin ABS and samples having 12.5% MF in ABS and results show the increased heat capacity of the material with increase in MF percentage. Further for sustainability analysis (based upon thermal stability), matrix of ABS-MF12.5% was subjected to three repeated thermal (heating-cooling) cycles and it has been ascertained that no significant loss was noticed in heat capacity of recycled composite matrix. The results are also supported by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Overall the results of the rheological, mechanical, wear, morphological and thermal properties suggested that 12.5% proportion of MF can be reinforced into selected grade of ABS thermoplastic for 3D printing as a sustainable solution.