Study of the mechanical properties of nonwoven fibre mat reinforced photopolymers used in rapid prototyping

The paper describes a series of preliminary experiments that were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of two stereolithography resins reinforced using commercially available nonwoven fibre mats. Two commonly used photo-curable resin systems, an acrylic and an epoxy based one, were used to laser build the test specimens. Comparisons of the mechanical properties between pure-polymer specimens and their fibre-reinforced counterparts were made, by subjecting the parts to tensile tests. It was found that the fibre-reinforced specimens yielded higher measured values of elastic modulus and ultimate tensile strength.