Friction and wear behaviour of copper reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene based polymer composite developed by fused deposition modelling process

This paper focuses on the development of copper filled Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) composites by fused deposition modelling (FDM) and to characterize its friction and wear behaviour. Twin screw extrusion technique was employed to extract copper-ABS composite filament. Three different materials were tested, i.e. pure ABS, ABS+2.5wt% Cu and ABS+5wt% Cu. Friction and wear characteristics of pure ABS and copper filled ABS composites were tested under various loads and sliding velocities. Addition of Copper powder has significantly improved the friction and wear properties of the developed composites. Further, it is also observed that friction and wear behaviour increased with increase in copper content in ABS. Worn out surfaces were subjected to scanning electron microscopy studies to analyse and identify the possible wear mechanisms involved.