Challenges in electroplating of additive manufactured ABS plastics

Abstract Additive manufacturing of plastics as modern technology introduces new perspectives towards exceptional structures and allows realization of contemporary designs. For those purposes a post-treatment of the components, e.g. surface coating with metals, is crucial. Electroplating on polymers, like ABS (terpolymer of acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene), is an established industrial process applied on components manufactured by standard technologies, like injection molding. It consists of various steps – from cleaning over creating electric conductivity on the non-conducting polymer surface towards galvanic coating with metals. In this publication, the challenges in transferring this process to additive manufactured ABS components are analyzed by focusing on the surface quality. Surface quality is evaluated by macroscopic imaging and different microscopic technologies (transmission light microscopy, laser scanning microscopy and scanning electron microscopy). The success of electroplating processes on plastics strongly depends on the nature of the plastic surfaces and therefore on the additive manufacturing parameters applied. The used additive technology of fused deposition modelling is characterized by the deposition of single plastic strands. Adjustments of selected manufacturing parameters, such as the layer thickness and the overlap of the stored plastic strands, create the conditions of homogenous and well adhering metal coatings. According to the surface topology from this additive manufacturing process, pre-treatment with levelling and sealing the surface is identified as important challenge towards success and reproducibility of electroplating process.