This year, we were able to perform our first tensile test on recycled PLA filament!
Lauren and I spent the majority of the fall 2019 semester searching for a tensile testing machine (an Instron tester) that we could be trained on and use for our test specimens. Around Thanksgiving, we were finally able to contact Professor Zohdi of the Mechanical Engineering Department at UC Berkeley and he graciously offered his machine for the tests.
After printing three test specimens of both recycled and virgin PLA, we tested the specimens. However, because of the smaller print beds available to us then (for more detail, see “3D Printing: What have we done? What’s happening now?”), the test specimens were smaller, resulting in less clear data for our tensile tests. This data was interesting to see but provided little information about the actual properties of the recycled filament because the specimens broke so quickly under tension that we were only able to collect a few data points for each sample.
When we returned for the spring 2020 semester, the goal was to print larger test specimens in order to get clearer data (which we were able to do with our new 3D Printer). A few of these specimens got printed on the new printer and we were awaiting a chance to test them. However, due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, our campus is closed until further notice, and our mechanical testing plan is paused.
In the future, we will continue to print test specimens and perform mechanical tests on them.
On behalf of our entire team, we hope you and your loved ones are doing well in these uncertain times.
This blog post was written by Brooke Chang.
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