Friction welding for the manufacturing of PA6 and ABS structures reinforced with Fe particles

In the present work PA6 matrix reinforced with metal powder (Fe) has been joined by friction welding with ABS matrix reinforced with Fe powder for structural applications (like: joining of pavement sheets, assembly of pipe lines etc.). The melt flow index (MFI) of PA6+Fe powder was put approximately equivalent to MFI of ABS + Fe powder by varying the proportion of Fe powder in PA6 and ABS matrix. After fixing proportion of Fe powder in PA6 and ABS material, these materials were used for preparation of feed stock filament of fused deposition modelling filament (FDM) by screw extrusion process. Finally two FDM filaments of PA6+Fe powder and ABS + Fe powder were fed into FDM machine independently. The functional prototypes of circular cross-section were prepared on FDM machine (one with filament of PA6+ Fe powder and second with ABS + Fe powder). These geometrical shapes of two dissimilar plastic/polymer materials were used on friction welding setup. Finally under best parametric conditions of feed, rpm etc. these reinforced polymer materials were successfully joined. This study provides a response surface methodology (RSM) based statistical model for enhancing the weldability of dissimilar polymer materials (as an alternative method) with improved mechanical/metallurgical properties.