2024-2025 Faculty Research Grant
Boon-Chai Ng (Engineering) and Matias Soto (Innovation and Entrepreneurship).
Evaluation of 3-D printed tensile test specimens with added fillers.
3D-printed objects are becoming more ubiquitous every day, including in their use in the manufacturing industry. They possess several advantages over other processes; namely, the ability to print complex shapes using polymers, which may be difficult when manufacturing the same shapes using injection molding. However, the case of using 3d-printing to replace injection molding is a difficult one, given the fact that the cost for injection molding is significantly lower than 3d-printing, and production times are much faster. Another application of 3d-printed parts is to replace metal components. The difficulty in doing that has to do with the higher strength of material in metals. Nevertheless, reinforced polymers offer an opportunity to replace metal components using a polymer matrix with fiber reinforcement. To better understand the strength and behavior of reinforcing fibers within the 3d-printing manufacturing process using a Markforged Mark Two printer, a set of experiments will be undertaken. 3D-printed tensile test specimens using Onyx and overlayed with fibers, namely, fiberglass, carbon fiber and Kevlar, will be tested using an Instron Tensile Tester to determine its mechanical properties such as yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, elongation and its modulus of elasticity. The overlay fibers will also be arranged in specific directions against the applied load.