Characterization of material stiffness on injection moulded microspecimens using different test methods

Abstract

Injection moulding of polymer microparts can result in modified material behaviour due to process-induced changes in the internal properties. Thus, a transfer of the mechanical material properties in microparts, determined and valid on standardized test specimens, is only partially possible and should be verified on microtest specimens. This paper investigates both tensile and bending test methods for a suitable characterization of material stiffness in polymer microparts. For this purpose a down-scaled standard specimen is used and tested with different testing methods. The investigations reveal that the different testing methods result in comparable mechanical values. The effects of process-induced modified mechanical behaviour are observable in the investigated testing methods. Consequently, a microbending test is potentially a suitable method for characterizing material stiffness using microspecimens. © 2014 Dietmar Drummer et al.