Art, sculptures, as well as mass-produced items are often made to last. Although some of the ancient Greek sculptures may have lost their colors (and sometimes a few limbs), they are otherwise in great shape. Paintings from the 17th or 18th century are almost as vibrant as when they dried on the easel. Even Lego bricks that have spent 25 years at the beach or in the ocean still look new today. What will 3D-printed objects of the future look like?
Multicolored plastic filaments are available for printing on a 3-D printer.
The 3D printers that can create quick, on-demand objects are new technology. It’s a popular technique for making quick mock-ups or temporary solutions, but 3D-printing can also be used for more long-term applications. It can be used by museums to create tactile models or to build structural parts for restoration projects. These aren’t temporary creations. They are structures that will be useful for years to come.
There are also other reasons to want to preserve 3D-printed materials for more than just a few years, but we haven’t had the technology for long enough to really know what will happen to these objects over time.
Art conservation experts at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, tested two types of 3D-printed materials under artificial accelerated aging to find out. Plastics age quickly and often suffer chemical and color changes. This can be caused by UV radiation, or extreme temperature fluctuations. The researchers placed the 3D-printed samples and original filaments in two chambers. One exposed them to UV light, and the other to high temperatures.
Two popular materials for filament-based 3D printing were tested: Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and Polylactic Acid. For both they tested a piece of the filament that’s fed into the printer, and a small rectangle of printed material.
PLA and ABS showed chemical changes during their rapid aging simulations. PLA performed slightly better than ALS. ALS lost more color to UV radiation and temperature changes. The material structure also became more fragile and warped. PLA, on the other hand, showed only minor changes after UV radiation. However, there were some bulges after being exposed to the temperature chamber.
This information is important for those who want their 3D printed creations to last. It can also be useful for manufacturers who wish to create more durable 3D printing materials. However, there are still many things to be done. Other 3D printing materials still require further analysis and testing. Only time will reveal how these materials age.