Thermo-mechanical properties of ABS parts fabricated by fused deposition modeling and vapor smoothing

FDM is one of the popular 3D printing technologies due to an inexpensive extrusion machine and multi-material printing. However, FDM could only use thermoplastics such as ABS and PLA and has a problem related to the post-processing. In this study, we measured the mechanical property of ABS parts fabricated by FDM and the vapor smoothing technique which is one of the post-processing methods. Using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and dilatometer, we observed temperature-dependent storage modulus and CTE for specimens varying with amount of acetone in the vapor smoothing process. In result, we could not observe the effect of the amount of acetone in the given range but differentiate one without the vapor smoothing process and the others with the vapor smoothing process in terms of the storage modulus and CTE. Moreover, we could perform finite element analysis using the measured mechanical properties and make a design guideline for an ABS product. We could conclude that the vapor smoothing process weakens thermal stability of ABS 3D printed parts.