On chemical assisted blending of secondary recycled ABS with bakelite and wood dust for fused filament fabrication

In past decades, several studies have been reported on the fabrication of thermoplastic matrix-based filaments by mechanical blending with a twin-screw extruder (TSE) for 3D printing applications. But hitherto little has been reported on the chemical-assisted mechanical blending of secondary (2 degrees) recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) matrix with reinforcement of wood dust (WD) and bakelite powder (BP) for non-structural engineering applications. This study demonstrates the influence of TSE processing parameters on various properties (mechanical, rheological, and thermal) of composite filaments prepared by reinforcing WD and BP in a 2 degrees recycled ABS matrix with the assistance of a chemical (acetone) as a novel fabrication technique. It was observed that chemical blending of reinforcements in ABS resulted in improved mechanical properties as compared to mechanical blending, however, the heat-carrying capacity of filaments with chemical assisted blending was degraded. The enhanced peak strength (PS) along with percentage break elongation (%BE) of ABS+BP-based composite filament was observed at 10 kg (load), 245 degrees C (temperature) and 70 rpm (speed) with the corresponding values of PS and %BE as (30.93 MPa, 5.43%), respectively. The input parameters (10 kg, 225 degrees C, 70 rpm) displayed optimum PS and %BE (35.72 MPa, 6.87%), respectively, for ABS+WD-based composite filaments.