Mechanical, thermal and micrographic investigations of friction stir welded: 3D printed melt flow compatible dissimilar thermoplastics

In this study, effort has been made to prepare aluminium (Al) reinforced thermoplastic composites of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polyamide6 (PA6) with twin screw extrusion (TSE) followed by 3D printing of functional prototype on fused deposition modelling (FDM) setup for exploring the possibilities of joining with controlled melt flow properties. The 3D printed Al reinforced ABS and PA6 thermoplastic composite based functional prototypes were welded with friction stir welding (FSW) on vertical milling. The joints were subjected to tensile, flexural, thermal and photo-micrographic investigations. It has been observed that reinforcement of 15% Al to ABS matrix and 50% Al to PA6 matrix resulted into similar melt flow index (MFI) and maximum tensile, flexural properties were obtained at 1400 rpm, 30 mm/min feed rate and 4 mm plunge depth with minimum force 52 N (in the present case study). These results will be helpful for joining/crack filling of oil/gas pipeline with significantly reduced downtime.