A Retrospective Investigation of Mechanical and Physical Properties of ABS Specimen Developed by Manual Injection Moulding and Fused Deposition Modelling

Fused depositions modelling (FDM) has been developed over three decades from now and still has much scope for new improvements. The mechanical and physical properties of the product prepared by this technique depend on different processing parameters. This paper focuses on the effect of two diverse manufacturing processes on the mechanical behaviour of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) specimen. In the first case, the specimen manufactured by the conventional manufacturing process, i.e. hand moulding technique, and in the second case, the specimen printed by additive manufacturing process with different raster angles. The tensile test of all the specimens has been carried out on the computerised tensometer instrument. Results demonstrate that the fused deposition method technique has the edge over the moulding technique. The tensile properties further enhanced by altering the raster angle within the stipulated range. The moulded specimen shows more resistance to breaking load, whereas the 3D printed specimen has a better peak load value. Maximum tensile strength obtained at ±45° raster angle and 90° offered the least resistance. Experiments established that the dimensional shrinkage in the 3D printed specimen is found 2% more than the moulded specimen.