Approaching Standardization: Mechanical Material Testing of Macroscopic two-photon Polymerized Specimens.

Two-photon polymerization (2PP) is becoming increasingly established as additive manufacturing technology for micro-fabrication due to its high-resolution and the feasibility of generating complex parts. Until now, the high resolution of 2PP was also its bottleneck, as it limited throughput and therefore restricted the application to the production of micro-parts. Thus, mechanical properties of 2PP materials could only be characterized using non-standardized specialized micro-testing methods. Due to recent advances in 2PP technology, it is now possible to produce parts in the size of several millimeters to even centimeters, finally permitting the fabrication of macro-sized testing specimens. Besides suitable hardware systems, 2PP materials exhibiting favorable mechanical properties that allow printing of up-scaled parts are strongly demanded. In this work, the up-scalability of three different photopolymers is investigated using a high-throughput 2PP system and low numerical aperture optics. Testing specimens in the cm-range were produced and tested with common or even standardized material testing methods available in conventionally equipped polymer testing labs. Examples of the characterization of mechanical, thermo-mechanical, and fracture properties of 2PP processed materials are shown. Additionally, aspects such as post-processing and aging have been investigated. This lays a foundation for future expansion of the 2PP technology to broader industrial application. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.