Comparing pellet- and filament-based additive manufacturing with conventional processing for ABS and PLA parts

More recently pellet-based additive manufacturing or so-called micro-extrusion has become more popular for final polymeric part production. In the present work, it is evaluated how pellet-based AM (PBAM) performs for its extrudates and specimens compared to the more established fused filament fabrication technique, considering both commercial acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymer and poly(lactic acid) pellets and filaments as feedstocks. For benchmarking purposes, a comparison with conventional techniques, that is, single screw extrusion and injection molding, is also included. To support the performance interpretation a theoretical analysis is conducted regarding the melting finalization point as well as void measurements and Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopic analysis for degradation effects are included. It is demonstrated that for the extrudates comparable results are obtained among the different manufacturing techniques, whereas for the specimens the situation is dissimilar. It is highlighted that PBAM/ME has a large market potential implementation, provided that its operating settings are further optimized.