Title: The effect of geometry on tensile strength of biodegradable polylactic-acid tensile-test specimens by material extrusion

Authors: Alper Ekinci; Andrew A. Johnson; Andrew Gleadall; Xiaoxiao Han

Addresses: Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK ' School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK ' Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK ' State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Hunan, China

Abstract: Biodegradable polylactic acid-based polymers are the most common material that can be manufactured using material extrusion, one of the most widely known additive manufacturing methods. However, medical grade polymers are too expensive for degradation studies with common tensile specimens. Therefore, this paper aims to reduce the volume of the material used for manufacturing tensile specimens by introducing a new micro-X tensile specimen developed for steel. The tensile strength of micro-X tensile specimens were compared with the ASTM D1708 standard tensile specimens. Experimental results and statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference in terms of tensile strength. Furthermore, the micro-X tensile specimen reduced the volume and as well as the cost to 1% in comparison to ASTM D638 type V standard tensile specimens.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; material extrusion; tensile strength; biodegradable PLA; micro tensile test; statistical analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAPIDM.2021.119937

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing, 2021 Vol.10 No.1, pp.23 - 35

Received: 19 Jul 2019
Accepted: 27 Jan 2020
Published online: 04 Jan 2022 *

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