3D-Printed Sandwiched Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene/Carbon Fiber Composites: Investigating Mechanical, Morphological, and Fractural Properties

3D printing of carbon fiber (CF)-reinforced thermoplastics has been reported for manufacturing economical consumer products. But hitherto, very little has been reported on 3D-printed hybrid composite structures prepared by sandwiching CF in the layer-by-layer manufactured functional prototype. The present work reports the 3D printing of CF sandwiched acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (by varying the CF layers from 1 to 3) composite structure. The 3D printing parameters like the number of CF layers, the orientation angle of layers, and the printing temperature of the nozzle were designed by Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. The mechanical properties obtained (ultimate tensile strength (UTS): 58.51 MPa, modulus of toughness (MT): 1.566 MPa, and Young’s modulus (E): 1009.994 MPa) were optimized to ascertain the acceptable strength of functional parts for commercial 3D printing applications. The parametric optimization highlighted that the acceptable orientation angle of CF in ABS matrix is 0°. Along with 03 numbers of CF layers and 250 °C printing nozzle temperature, functional parts with acceptable mechanical properties may be fabricated. The morphological analysis of the fractured surface outlined that the 3 layers of CF correspond to acceptable mechanical properties in the 3D-printed functional prototype. The mechanical and morphological results are supported by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometric analysis.