Mechanical Properties of FDM and SLA Low-cost 3-D Prints

A recent development of the 3-D printers, has made them readily available to the public at low costs. In order to make 3-D printed parts to be more useful for engineering applications the mechanical properties of printed parts must be known. This paper quantifies the basic tensile strength and elastic modulus of printed components produced with application of FDM and SLA printers. Tests have been conducted using ABS, fiberglass reinforced polyethylene terephthalate glycol (Z-Glass) and a Nobel printer photoresistive resin. The collected data show some distinctions between tensile modulus of 3-D prints and its base materials, i.e. Z-ABS prints Young modulus have mean value of 1.12 GPa and the encyclopedic value is between 1.7 up to 2.1 GPa. For other tested materials tensile modulus was appointed as 1.43 GPa for Z-Glass and 246 MPa for a Nobel printer photopolymer resin.