Effect of blend composition and core topology on FFF printed ABS/HIPS polymer blend structures for lightweight structural applications

Vennelakanti S. H. K., Sangeetha A. A., Muthukumar C., Subramanian J., Parameswaranpillai J., Krishnasamy S., ...Daha Fazla

PROGRESS IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, 2026 (ESCI, Scopus)

Özet

Additive manufacturing (AM) is widely used for producing lightweight, complex structures due to its design flexibility, rapid manufacturing time, and reduced material waste. Among AM techniques, fused filament fabrication (FFF) is often used due to its efficiency in combining two or more materials in manufacturing single part. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) provides good strength and toughness, while high impact polystyrene (HIPS) is a light-weight polymer with ease of processing. In this study ABS/HIPS were blended at different weight% (wt%) of ABS: HIPS as 100:0(10 A), 0:100(10 H), 30:70(3A7H), 50:50(5A5H), and 70:30(7A3H) to assess the tensile properties. Additionally sandwich specimens featuring re-entrant auxetic core, honeycomb core and diamond core were fabricated to assess the flexural performance and determine the influence of blending materials on flexural properties. 10 A specimens dominated in tensile and flexural properties, while 10 H specimens showed poor performance. 10 A and 10 H specimens depicted tensile strengths of 28.98 MPa and 16.13 MPa with 3A7H (16.32 MPa), 5A5H (16.95 MPa) and 7A3H (18.77 MPa) showing intermediate tensile strengths. Diamond core topology dominated in flexural performance with flexural strength of 6.61 MPa(10 A) and 4.29 MPa(10 H). Re-entrant auxetic core showed a flexural strength of 3.52 MPa(10 A) and 1.99 MPa(10 H) with honeycomb resulting in 2.35 MPa(10 A) and 2.03 MPa(10 H). Tensile and flexural strength of specimens increased with increase in ABS wt%. As a result, blending ABS/HIPS helps in enhancing mechanical properties of HIPS. Overall, this study highlights the ability of ABS/HIPS blends for manufacturing lightweight, reliable components for use in automotive, aerospace, and electrical equipment.