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Effect of accelerated weathering on the creep behaviour of additively manufactured Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG)

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Abstract

As additively manufactured components move away from short-term usability, such as single-use prototypes, towards commercial products used for longer periods of time, the long-term material properties, such as ageing and creep, are becoming increasingly important design considerations. Moreover, when additively manufactured components are designed for outdoor use, environmental stressors affect these long-term material properties in a process known as ‘weathering’. In this research paper, an initial set of experiments assessed the flexural creep behaviour of pellet-printed PETG after exposure to three accelerated environmental stressors: UV radiation, temperature and humidity. The outcomes thereof indicated that UV exposure was the only stressor to increase the creep compliance. A subsequent set of experiments increase the UV exposure duration from 100 to 200 h and excluded the effects of ageing on creep behaviour during creep tests. The outcome of this second series of experiments showed that the increase in creep compliance can be attributed to the effects of UV alone.

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Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Mineral Technologies but restrictions apply to the availability of this data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of Mineral Technologies.

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Acknowledgements

The researchers would like to thank UTS:Rapido, in particular, Hervé Harvard for establishing this overall research activity, and Martin Do for his assistance setting up and conducting the experiments.

Funding

The research study described herein is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and is co-funded by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (Innovative Manufacturing CRC Ltd), the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Downer, via its subsidiary Mineral Technologies Pty Ltd (IMCRC/MTC/290418). The funding bodies were not involved in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mineral Technologies, 11 Elysium Road, Carrara, QLD, 4211, Australia

    Thomas Romeijn

  2. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Thomas Romeijn, Karanvir Singh, Michael Behrens & Gavin Paul

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  1. Thomas Romeijn
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  2. Karanvir Singh
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  3. Michael Behrens
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  4. Gavin Paul
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Thomas Romeijn; Methodology: Thomas Romeijn; Investigation: Karanvir Singh; Validation: Thomas Romeijn, Karanvir Singh; Formal analysis: Thomas Romeijn; Data Curation: Thomas Romeijn, Karanvir Singh; Writing—original draft preparation: Thomas Romeijn, Karanvir Singh; Writing—review and editing: Gavin Paul, Michael Behrens; Supervision: Gavin Paul, Michael Behrens; Project Administration: Gavin Paul, Michael Behrens.

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Correspondence to Thomas Romeijn.

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Romeijn, T., Singh, K., Behrens, M. et al. Effect of accelerated weathering on the creep behaviour of additively manufactured Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG). J Polym Res 28, 352 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-021-02707-7

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