LESSON 6.2 · 1:57 · CHAPTER 6 · CHOOSING AND HANDLING A MATERIAL
The Z-direction tax
On printed coupons, strength across the layers is about a quarter to a third of strength along the bead, so a load path that crosses layers is sized on that.
Predict · at 0:36 in the video
A printed carbon fibre PC gives 124 megapascals along the bead. If there were no Z number on the sheet, what would you size a joint across the layers on?
About 35 megapascals. Across ten printed carbon grades, Z is a median 28 percent of the bead direction. 124 times that is about 35.
Further reading
This course is our own. These books go deeper.
- The economics of Big Area Additive Manufacturing, Post et al., Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2016
- Additively manufactured carbon fibre-reinforced composites: state of the art and perspective, van de Werken et al., Composites Part A, 2020
About the numbers
Simulations in this lesson are our own. Where a number rests on an assumption or a single source, the video marks it with an asterisk and says where it comes from.
Up next · 6.3 · 2:01Moulded datasheet, printed reality