Preparation of Hydrophobic Surface on PLA and ABS by Fused Deposition Modeling

In the fields of agriculture, medical treatment, food, and packaging, polymers are required to have the characteristics of self-cleaning, anti-icing, and anti-corrosion. The traditional preparation method of hydrophobic coatings is costly and the process is complex, which has special requirements on the surface of the part. In this study, fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing technology with design and processing flexibility was applied to the preparation of hydrophobic coatings on polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) parts, and the relationship between the printing process parameters and the surface roughness and wettability of the printed test parts was discussed. The experimental results show that the layer thickness and filling method have a significant effect on the surface roughness of the 3D-printed parts, while the printing speed has no effect on the surface roughness. The orthogonal experiment analysis method was used to perform the wettability experiment analysis, and the optimal preparation process parameters were found to be a layer thickness of 0.25 mm, the Grid filling method, and a printing speed of 150 mm/s.