ABS Basic

ABS is a plastic formed from acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene. It's often referred to as an engineering material because of its superior mechanical and thermal properties compared to conventional plastics. Due to its composition, ABS has the following properties:

• Acrylonitrile provides hardness, resistance to high temperatures, resistance to chemical products and rigidity.
• Butadiene offers temperature toughness, especially when it's low and impact resistance.
• Styrene provides more rigidity and mechanical strength.

The combination of these three building blocks makes ABS a plastic with coveted properties and thus widely used in industrial sectors such as the automobile or in commodities such as toys, electrodomestic products, etc. As a consequence of its widespread use in the industry, ABS was one of the first to be used in 3D printing together with PLA. Contrary to PLA, ABS can be easily post-processed by means of machining, polishing, drilling, gluing or painting without the need for special tools or products.

Material	PLA Basic	ABS Basic
Biodegradable
Hygroscopic
Machining possible
Coating possible
Requires Hot bed
Warping tendency
Gives off odors

Table 1: Comparison of printing properties and characteristics of PLA and ABS Basic.

The ABS Basic filament is a 3D printing filament made in Europe according to highest standards and using quality raw matter. The main characteristics of ABS Basic are its resistance, toughness and opacity. ABS Basic is available in 1 kg spools and in diameters of 1.75 mm and 3 mm, formats compatible with a large number of FDM 3D printers on the market. ABS Basic Purple stands out from other filaments of the same material for its great value for money, offering very good results at an affordable and competitive price.

Image 1: Some of the colors of ABS Basic. Source: Filament2Print.

3D printing with the ABS Basic filament has some complexity compared to other materials. The optimal extrusion temperature for ABS Basic is around 230 ºC, slightly higher than PLA. ABS Basic Purple requires the use of a heated bed, which must be between 90-120 ºC. It's also recommended to cover the printer bed with Kapton Tape, BuildTak, DimaFix, Magigoo or with 3DLac to achieve a good adhesion of the first layer and thus avoid possible deformations such as warping.