<p>Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, is a modern technology that has been revolutionizing the manufacturing sector since the early 2000s. Additive manufacturing of polymers has facilitated rapid prototyping and sustainability. Polymers are widely used in functional engineering applications due to their excellent toughness and strong impact resistance. However, these polymers cannot fully replace metals because of their inferior mechanical and tribological performance. Applying a metal coating on their surface can effectively overcome these limitations by providing a harder, more wear-resistant layer suitable for various tribo-mechanical applications. This work presents a comparative study of the tribo-mechanical behavior of coated and uncoated 3D-printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) surfaces. The objective is to evaluate the extent to which a surface coating enhances the mechanical performance of additively manufactured ABS components. Test specimens are fabricated using fused deposition modeling (FDM) and subsequently subjected to electroless nickel–boron (Ni–B) coating. The coated and uncoated specimens&#xa0;are studied for different tribo-mechanical behavior through nano-indentation, scratch test and pin-on-disk tribo-test. This study indicates that the Ni–B coating significantly increases the tribological properties of coated ABS samples compared to uncoated counterparts, attributed to high hardness and wear resistance of the deposited layer. The findings demonstrate that surface coatings can substantially improve the functional properties of 3D-printed ABS, enabling their use in applications requiring enhanced durability and mechanical performance.</p>