Thermal And Melt Flow Behaviour Of Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Composites For Fused Filament Fabrication

The thermal and melt flow behaviour of polymer and fibre materials are vital in producing filaments for fused filament fabrication (FFF), especially for custom-made composites materials. The degradation temperature and melting temperature of commercialised acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filament, neat ABS polymer and different loadings of kenaf fibre (KF) reinforced ABS composites were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) respectively. Melt flow index (MFI) was then investigated in view of the viscosity of the materials using a melt flow indexer at 230 °C and 5 kg weight loading. The kenaf fibre reinforced ABS composites were prepared using an internal mixer at 180 °C and crushed to the form of granules. It was found that the addition of kenaf fibre lowered the decomposition temperature and increased the melting temperature of composites as compared to the neat ABS polymer (0% KF – ABS). Meanwhile, the neat ABS polymer had higher value of MFI as compared to the commercialised ABS filament. The value of MFI increased as the kenaf fibre loading increases. Thus, the neat ABS polymer and kenaf fibre reinforced polymer composites are suitable as feedstock filament material for FFF since the low viscosity of commercialised ABS filament is able to be printed from open-source 3D printer