Stuff Dreams Are Made Of: ABS
Materials are a seriously important component of any design — after all, things have to be made of stuff. So, in our new SDAMO (Stuff Dreams Are Made Of) series, we’ll be exploring the different materials that make up your world — and could make up your stuff. Think of it as MTV Celebrity Cribs, for materials.
This week, I thought we could take a moment to get to know every Makerbot’s favorite plastic, that resin with a 6-pack: ABS!
A little bit of history is always a good place to start. Like many plastics, ABS, or Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene was a product of research during the Second World War. After the first world war, chemists were able to synthesize polystyrene, a brittle, inexpensive plastic that we now find in model kits and cheap picnic coolers. Styrene was nice, but you couldn’t do much with it, because it was so fragile. A lack of cheap, durable petro-plastic alternatives was one of the reasons that the Eamses won their contract to produce molded wooden leg braces during the Second World War; Wood was just lighter stronger and cheaper than any plastic at the time.
The plastic that really made a difference in the war was synthetic rubber. During the First World War, and up until the Allied Armies chemists developed a synthetic substitute, all rubber was made from latex. Unfortunatey for the Allies, many rubber-producing areas in the tropics were under control of the Axis powers. Rubber is important for tires, boots, hoses, gloves, and countless other war-time materials — without it the war would be lost. With great effort, scientists discovered that by creating a co-polymer of butadiene and styrene (rather than the monomer polystyrene) they could produce a synthetic rubber which could be used for tires, and would only require access to petroleum, which they had. And so the war was won.
After the war, scientists continued poking around with the co-polymer idea. They were still dissatisfied with PVC, and polystyrene, because they were to brittle for large, durable parts. The breakthrough came when they created a co-polymer of styrene, butadiene, and acrylonitrile, a chemical which acts like a molecular glue, binding the other two components together for a stronger, less brittle plastic than polystyrene. ABS was born, and almost immediately, it was used for everything from boats, to chairs, to refrigerators, to toys.
ABS has some interesting properties that make it particularly useful — and problematic for making. Those of you trying to glue ABS parts, try using Dichloromethane or Acetone to dissolve ABS scraps to make a glue. No better glue is available, since the resulting part will be 100% ABS after the solvent dries. Remember to do this in a well-ventillated area, since both of these solvents are suspected carcinogens. According to Wikipedia: “ABS polymers are resistant to aqueous acids, alkalis, concentrated hydrochloric and phosphoric acids, alcohols and animal, vegetable and mineral oils”. This is great information to know about all the materials you make with, since often we are making containers. For example, if using an alkali solution to make a battery, you could make the case from ABS. One major downside of ABS is that it burns very well, unless it has flame retardants mixed into it (most consumer appliances like TVs or computer monitors do.)
ABS is an great material to have in every maker’s stuff-box — and as far as materials go, knowing literally is half the battle. I hope to make thingiverse into a vertiable Stufflopedia of great materials to try. Stay tuned for more materials ideas, and for next week’s SDAMO. And, as always, if anyone has additional ABS information, trivia, or experiences to share, chime in to the comments.
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Erik de Bruijn Said,
September 8, 2009 @ 2:18 am
Not all ABS is the same. If during production, different ratios of the monomers (of the A, B and the S) are used, you have different properties. Also, as nophead also discovered, additives like colour pigments or perhaps the mentioned flame retardants tend to change material properties like strength, viscosity at extrusion temperatures, etc. So for a different spool of ABS plastics you still might need different settings for your RepRap or Makerbot.
Dominic Muren Said,
September 8, 2009 @ 12:56 pm
Absolutely right Erik, thanks for chiming in. Definitely, using different formulations of co-polymer will necessitate different extrude temperatures. Even more crucially, additives like minerals or fibers can nonlinerally affect the strength, stiffness, and the extrusion force needed for the plastics. This is one of the things we are excited to explore at Thingiverse — just what sort of material parameters can be changed to produce new more interesting prints, and whole new opportunities for fabbing.
Dale Said,
September 27, 2009 @ 12:51 am
Hi,
I’m designing a spool holder for my makerbot and I was wondering if anyone has the dimensions (rough ID, OD, height numbers are fine) for that ABS spool?
Thanks,
Dale
Nicolas Said,
October 18, 2009 @ 5:56 pm
Hi,
This is an interesting topic, and makes me wonder… I live in Venezuela and right now the economical situation makes it impossible for me to acquire this material on a regular basis if I wanted to use the makerbot. Could there be a possibility of recycle plastic bottles or other items to extrude that plastic into something the makerbot can work with?
I think that if that limitation could be overcome, the quick prototyping could be a lot more feasible in my country. By the content of this article, I see that the quality of the material wouldn’t be as good as that of the original ABS plastic mentioned, but the results would be prototypes anyway, and would work to convey the idea.
I have other questions I would like to ask, I love the purpose of your project, and I’m looking forward to try to help you globalize your idea. Let’s build stuff!
Dave Said,
September 23, 2010 @ 8:03 pm
Hi Nicolas. Our good friends at the Recyclebot Project are working on a machine to extrude plastic for use with Makerbots. At the moment they are chewing up HDPE milk bottles and extruding 100% recycled filament.. In theory, this is just the process that a plastruder runs, but in reverse!
I am not sure how they intend to release this technology, but it is definitely possible.
Matthew Dunstone Said,
November 19, 2010 @ 8:29 pm
Great subject. As an outsider waiting for his new Thing-O-Matic, I have a perspective from a parallel industry. I work with colour laser printers. One of the battles for this industry is to obtain consistency from one print to the next (sound familiar?). A fundamental is to produce consistent toner (which is actually tiny particles of plastic). The goal is to make particles of uniform size and quality to distribute colour evenly over the page. It must be repeatable. This has proven to be harder than anyone thought, but the technology has improved radically over the past 15 years.
One of the 3D printing issues that turns up everywhere I look is “what settings do I use to print X?”. No one has a satisfactory answer because it is still something of a black art. I am confident that as 3D printing catches on, the market will demand more attention to wire consistency, which I am convinced is a big part of the issue. Someone will cash in when they produce ABS wire in a range of colours that have uniform diameter and uniform melt temperatures. Engineered ABS wire will do for 3D printing what Pantone did for colour printing – add the missing science.
Meanwhile, I look forward to building my first 3D printer and learning some of the black art of printing stuff
tim Said,
March 10, 2011 @ 2:47 pm
i love working with abs. i’m currently making a door handle out of abs i got from http://www.iplasticsupply.com/
daniele Said,
March 21, 2011 @ 10:46 am
hi, I would like to request information. I want to know more about the machine that destroys and rebuilds the plastic filament to operate the 3D Printer
How much does the 3-D printer?
How much does the plastic shredders?
What accessories are needed for the proper functioning?
I speak Italian and to communicate with you I have helped with google translation
ciao
ty