Parametric analysis of wear and surface roughness of additive manufactured ABS parts from indigenous ABS filament

Abstract Fused filament fabrication (FFF) additive manufacturing process produces intricate designs with minimal material waste by feeding the filament into a heated nozzle, which melts and deposits the material according to the digital model. The current work focuses on the filament extrusion of an in-house manufactured Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) material using a 3-Devo extruder to give customized ABS filament and its comparison with commercially available ABS filament. The most important factors to consider are the filament’s diameter and accuracy over its whole length. This experimental study examines how printing characteristics, such as layer thickness, printing speed, and the number of top solid layers, affect the wear rate and surface quality of printed products. An L9 orthogonal array drawn from the Taguchi design was utilized in order to systematically examine process parameters. The findings show that for filaments sourced commercially, layer thickness has a strong influence on wear and surface quality, while printing speed is more influential for in-house filaments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) analysis show that optimized parameters can significantly improve functional behavior of printed parts. While all factors were not statistically significant at a 95% confidence level, trends in the main effects plots and regression models establish the significance of parameter selection in reducing wear and enhancing surface finish. The results help in the optimization of FFF printing for polymer-based functional parts, providing insights for other industrial applications.