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6614560 
Journal Article 
Sustainable Additive Manufacturing: Mechanical Response of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene over Multiple Recycling Processes 
Vidakis, N; Petousis, M; Maniadi, A; Koudoumas, E; Vairis, A; Kechagias, J; , 
2020 
1 
Sustainability
ISSN: 2071-1050 
MDPI 
BASEL 
12 
9 
3568 
English 
WOS:000537476200067 
Sustainability in additive manufacturing refers mainly to the recycling rate of polymers and composites used in fused filament fabrication (FFF), which nowadays are rapidly increasing in volume and value. Recycling of such materials is mostly a thermomechanical process that modifies their overall mechanical behavior. The present research work focuses on the acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer, which is the second most popular material used in FFF-3D printing. In order to investigate the effect of the recycling courses on the mechanical response of the ABS polymer, an experimental simulation of the recycling process that isolates the thermomechanical treatment from other parameters (i.e., contamination, ageing, etc.) has been performed. To quantify the effect of repeated recycling processes on the mechanic response of the ABS polymer, a wide variety of mechanical tests were conducted on FFF-printed specimens. Regarding this, standard tensile, compression, flexion, impact and micro-hardness tests were performed per recycle repetition. The findings prove that the mechanical response of the recycled ABS polymer is generally improved over the recycling repetitions for a certain number of repetitions. An optimum overall mechanical behavior is found between the third and the fifth repetition, indicating a significant positive impact of the ABS polymer recycling, besides the environmental one. 
Environmental Studies; additive manufacturing; 3D printing; recycling; acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS); material characterization; Research; Mechanical properties; Styrenes; ABS resins; Sustainability; Polyethylene terephthalate; Repetition; Thermomechanical treatment; Compression tests; Acrylonitrile; Contamination; Hardness tests; Three dimensional printing; Polymers; Microhardness; Simulation; Fabrication; Styrene; 3-D printers; Polymer matrix composites; High density polyethylenes; Mechanical tests; Mechanical analysis; Butadiene; Compression; Physical properties; Sustainable manufacturing; Market shares; Fused deposition modeling; United States--US