The Experimental Comparison of Abrasion Resistance of Extruded and 3D Printed Plastics

3D printing is becoming widely used and printed parts very often replace extruded parts. Plastics, due to their ability to work with steel without lubrication, are commonly used for sliding components and are therefore exposed to various types of wear, including abrasive wear. In this paper, abrasive wear resistance tests were carried out to compare extruded and 3D-printed samples. Moreover, microhardness tests, surface topography and microscopic observations of the surface of the samples before and after friction were also conducted. Samples were made from eight materials that are most commonly used in 3D FDM printing: PLA, PET-G, ABS, PA, PP, PC, PMMA and HIPS. For six out of the eight materials tested, samples made by extrusion proved to be more resistant to abrasive wear (between 10% and 24%) than those printed ones. Fabrication by 3D printing can lead to different object properties and thus different abrasion resistance. The abrasion resistance of extruded samples depends on factors reported in the literature such as hardness, density and surface roughness. In the case of 3D printed samples, no such relationship was found. For this reason, the researchers believe that the reduced abrasion wear resistance of printed samples is due to their specific internal structure.