SURFACE TREATMENT AND TENSILE STRENGTH ANALYSIS OF FUSED FILAMENT FABRICATION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS TREATED WITH THE ABRASIVE BLASTING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

This research presents an examination of the Abrasive Blasting technique (Sandblasting) as an alternative for the surface treatment of Additive Manufacturing products obtained through Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) method. The growing popularity of this kind of manufacturing brings more attention to its problems, and being the final product surface aspect, a known problem of this method, this research aims to find alternatives to the usual surface finishing techniques. The focus of this research then, was the surface quality of FFF products, and to analyze this quality, values of Surface Roughness (Ra) was used as a primary tool, being aided by microscopic pictures and F profiles from a profilometer. Another aspect of the research was the tensile strength analysis. It was considered important that this mechanical property was examined to understand the effects that the abrasive blasting treatment could bring to the additive manufactured products.