3D Printing: Estimate material strength impact using different printing methods? (2 Solutions)
Channel: Roel Van de Paar
Date: 24/06/2019

3D Printing: What is a good way to estimate the impact on material strength different printing methods will have?


The Question: I'm going to 3D print a part that needs to meet certain strength requirements,
due to its usages. I know how strong a particular plastic (eg. comrpessive/
tensile/shear strength) is when dealt with in a solid chunk, but not when it is
3D printed. What is a good way to estimate the change?

Solutions Sample (Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful)

== This solution helped 3 people ==
It's hard to tell without actually testing the part. There are many ways you
can 3D print a part, even on the same machine, that can yield different
results.
Here are some tips to help uphold strength requirements:
 * Identify where your stresses are and avoid allowing the natural "grain"
 of the print (i.e. each layer) to coincide with the stresses of the part.
 For example, I just printed a part with hinges today. I set my part up to
 ensure that the circular profile of the hinge on each layer, instead of
 having the machine "bridge" the circular profile.
 * Make your part more solid by increasing the infill. Note that somewhere
 around 35% won't really provide much more strength than say 50% with a
 standard infill pattern (i.e. hexagonal, diamond, catfill). However, I
 would imagine that if a spherical infill pattern was ever designed, that
 would be the strongest.
 * An easy way to beef up small areas of a part is to increase your shell
 variable (how many profile layers for each layer). Again, referencing my
 hinge design, I made sure that my hinges were completely printed using
 shell instead of shell/infill.
 * Don't be afraid to do some post-processing such as adding epoxy/epoxies
 in high-stress areas.
If it's not an expensive part to print, I would suggest playing with some of
these ideas yourself and conduct controlled tests to see what setups work best
for your application(s).

With thanks & praise to God, and with thanks to the many people who have made this project possible! | Content (except music & images) licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 | Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music | Images: https://stocksnap.io/license & others | With thanks to user ZuOverture (https://askubuntu.com/users/8847), user tbm0115 (https://askubuntu.com/users/98), user Sean Houlihane (https://askubuntu.com/users/4927), user mac (https://askubuntu.com/users/9134), user GiantCowFilms (https://askubuntu.com/users/143), and the Stack Exchange Network (https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/109). Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer: All information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You are responsible for your own actions. Please contact me if anything is amiss at Roel D.OT VandePaar A.T gmail.com.