I am looking into two different materials, PEEK and ULTEM 9085. I want to test and compare the two (cyclic, tensile, etc) however ULTEM 9085 is only available to purchase in filament form, so I can not machine a test specimen out of a stock sheet.
My Question:
Can I 3D print a standard ASTM dumbbell-shaped test specimen for Tensile testing and a rectangular specimen for DMA testing and still get accurate data to help me decide which material I want to use?
The specimens would be FDM 3D printed in the same orientation, preferably not annealed.
Any shared knowledge would be much appreciated, thank you!
Hi, the simple question is yes, you can 3D print the testing specimens for both the DMA and tensile testing. Many people do that.
Be advised that you will not be testing just the material alone, though, but also the preparation technique. That may account for the distribution of defects, microporosity at the layer interface, crystallinity, thermal history, etc. However, that's not a big deal because you will 3D print your final parts in the end, right? And they will suffer from the same issues as your testing specimens, so your results should be relevant to your application, even if they might not compare to the normalized measurements of bulk bodies.
Method is okay for comparison purpose. But will not represent true homogeneous bulk material property, because of numerous flaws at layer interfaces!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering