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Video: Will It Erode? - Part 2

In this "Will it..." video, we continue our "3D Benchy torture test" by subjecting them to hours of vibratory media tumbling to see which would hold up the best.

Xomety X
By Team Xometry
January 11, 2024
 2 min read
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Which 3D printed plastics are the most erosion-resistant? In this "Will it..." video, Greg Paulsen, Xometry's Director of Application Engineering, 3D printed the popular "3D Bency" using several different materials (polycarbonate, PLA, polypropylene, ULTEM, Nylon 11 and 12, etc.) and printing processes (FDM, SLS, MJF, SLA, LSPc, Polyjet, DLS), then subjected the parts to a vibratory media tumbling for hours to see which would hold up.


Watch to find out which 3D printed plastic resists the stresses of our tumbling torture test the best!



Engineering Challenge: Will it Erode? | Part II

More About This Test

We performed this test with the popular "3D Benchy", a 3D model specifically designed for testing and benchmarking 3D printers. This is a continuation of our first video in this series, in which we tested abrasion resistance with media blasting. Check out part one if you haven't seen it already. For the second test, the same materials ranging from thermoplastics to photopolymer resins were tumbled for hours using ceramic media, abrasive plastic media, and more. Here is a list of the processes and materials we tested:


Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

  • PLA
  • Polycarbonate
  • ULTEM 9085

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

  • Nylon 12 (dyed blue)
  • Nylon 11 EX

HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)

  • Polypropylene
  • TPU 88A

Stereolithography (SLA)

  • Accura ClearVue (quick-clear finish)
  • Somos EvoLVe 128

Lubricant Sublayer Photo-curing (LSPc)

  • xCE
  • xPP405

Digital Light Synthesis (DLS)

  • RPU 70

PolyJet

  • Opaque Rigid Photopolymer

Test Results & Observations

After the vibratory media tumbling tests, we reviewed and assigned an erosion resistance ranking to each material based on how it performed. 1-star rated materials exhibited poor erosion resistance, exemplified by issues such as extreme smoothing, material loss, detail loss, etc. In contrast, 3-star rated materials had excellent erosion resistance and were harder to distinguish from the control (non-tumbled) samples.


You can see the results from the test in the chart below:

Slide 1 of 1
Xometry erosion resistance test results
Xometry erosion resistance test results
Xometry erosion resistance test results

Results summary from media blast abrasion test

Before & After Photos

In the image gallery below, you can closely examine how each tested part changed by the end of the experiment. On the left side of each photo you will see what the Benchy looked like before testing, and on the right what it looked like after testing.

Slide 1 of 13
FDM - Red PLA
FDM - Polycarbonate
FDM - Tan ULTEM 9085
SLS - Nylon 12 (dyed blue)
SLS - Nylon 11 EX
MJF - Polypropylene
MJF - TPU 88A
SLA- Accura ClearVue (quick-clear finish)
SLA- Somos EvoLVe 128
LSPc - xCE
LSPc - xPP405
DLS - RPU 70
PolyJet- Opaque Rigid Photopolymer (yellow)
FDM - Red PLA
FDM - Polycarbonate
FDM - Tan ULTEM 9085
SLS - Nylon 12 (dyed blue)
SLS - Nylon 11 EX
MJF - Polypropylene
MJF - TPU 88A
SLA- Accura ClearVue (quick-clear finish)
SLA- Somos EvoLVe 128
LSPc - xCE
LSPc - xPP405
DLS - RPU 70
PolyJet- Opaque Rigid Photopolymer (yellow)
FDM - Red PLA
FDM - Polycarbonate
FDM - Tan ULTEM 9085
SLS - Nylon 12 (dyed blue)
SLS - Nylon 11 EX
MJF - Polypropylene
MJF - TPU 88A
SLA- Accura ClearVue (quick-clear finish)
SLA- Somos EvoLVe 128
LSPc - xCE
LSPc - xPP405
DLS - RPU 70
PolyJet- Opaque Rigid Photopolymer (yellow)

FDM - Red PLA

More Engineering Challenge Videos

Want to see more content like this? Check out some of our other engineering challenge videos below!


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Team Xometry
This article was written by various Xometry contributors. Xometry is a leading resource on manufacturing with CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, 3D printing, injection molding, urethane casting, and more.