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.