Surface characteristics of machined polystyrene with 3D printed thermoplastic tool
File(s)materials-13-02729.pdf (3.81 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
An effort is made in this work to appraise the surface characteristics of machined expandable polystyrene (EPS) with a novel 3D printed thermoplastic acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) tool. Linear grooves on EPS were made on a vertical milling machine that was modified to conduct experiments in the laboratory. The tests were designed as per the Taguchi L9 based factorial design of experimentation while varying process parameters such as depth of cut, spindle speed, and feed rate. The machining responses dimensional accuracy and surface roughness of the machined grooves were studied. Furthermore, the surface topography of the machined specimens was considered to investigate the mechanism of material removal in response to the processing conditions. Moreover, mathematical models developed for the prediction of the output responses showed a significant correlation with the experimental results. The results of the statistical study indicate that the surface roughness is influenced by the spindle speed and dimensional accuracy by the depth-of-cut. Overall, the findings of the experimental work advocated the feasibility of 3D printed thermoplastic tools for machining soft polymeric materials. It can become a useful alternative for mass and batch production.
Date Issued
2020-06-16
Date Acceptance
2020-06-12
Citation
Materials, 2020, 13 (12), pp.1-16
ISSN
1996-1944
Publisher
MDPI
Start Page
1
End Page
16
Journal / Book Title
Materials
Volume
13
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/12/2729
Subjects
dimension accuracy
expandable polystyrene
fused deposition modelling
milling
surface roughness
thermoplastic tool
three-dimensional printing
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-06-16