Natural ABS Basic

ABS is a plastic formed from acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene. It's called engineering plastic because it's a material with superior mechanical and thermal properties than conventional plastics, which also implies greater printing difficulties.

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 blocks makes ABS a plastic widely used in industrial sectors such as the automobile or in products in common use (toys, electrical appliance housings, etc.). As a consequence of its widespread use in the industry, this material was one of the first to be used in 3D printing together with PLA.

Contrary to PLA, ABS can be easily post-processed: machining, polishing, drilling, gluing or painting with ease and 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.

ABS Basic Natural Filament is a 3D printing filament made in Europe. The main characteristics of this material are its resistance, toughness and opacity. ABS Basic Natural is available in 1 Kg spools and in diameters of 1.75 mm and 2. 85 mm; formats compatible with a large number of 3D FDM printers on the market. ABS Basic Natural 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.

3D printing with ABS Basic Natural filament has some complexity compared to other materials. The optimal extrusion temperature for ABS Basic Natural is around 230ºC, slightly higher than PLA. ABS Basic Natural requires the use of a heated bed, which must be between 90 ºC and 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.

It should be noted that ABS Basic Natural is a hygroscopic material, which means that it absorbs moisture from the air. This can cause a decrease in print quality. To keep the filament free of moisture, it's recommended to store the spools in vacuum containers such as those from PrintDry or use a PrintDry II filament dryer.

In the usage tips tab you will find more interesting information to get the best results using this ABS Basic Natural filament in your 3D printer.