The effect of geometry on tensile strength of biodegradable polylactic-acid tensile-test specimens by material extrusion

Additive manufactured biomedical devices have been widely used in the biomedical fields due to the development of biomaterials and manufacturing techniques. Biodegradable Polylactic Acid-based polymers are the most common material that can be manufactured using material extrusion, one of the most widely known additive manufacturing methods. However, medical grade polymers are too expensive for degradation studies with common tensile specimens. Therefore, this paper aims to reduce the volume of the material used for manufacturing tensile specimens by introducing a new micro-X tensile specimen developed for steel. The tensile strength of micro-X tensile specimens were compared with the ASTM D1708 standard tensile specimens. Experimental results and statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference in terms of Tensile Strength. Furthermore, the micro-X tensile specimen reduced the volume and as well as the cost to 1% in comparison to ASTM D638 type V standard tensile specimens.