Influence of 3D-Printing Strategies on the Compressibility of TPU 85A Elastomeric Material

The aim of the present work is to analyze by experimental methods the influence of printing strategies on the mechanical behavior of TPU 85A elastomeric material under compressive stress. We analyzed 3D printed specimens which were realized with three different printing strategies (circular, lines and zig-zag), the rest of the printing parameters remaining unchanged. The 3D printing was carried out using an Ultimaker 3 3D printer and the experimental tests were performed on a Galdabini Quasar 25 uniaxial testing machine with specimens of size 10x10 mm according to ISO 604:2002. The results of the experimental tests show that the specimens with the circular printing strategy obtained the lowest values of elastic deformation, and the compressive strength reached the highest value of the three analyzed variants. These experimental results can contribute to the development and improvement of the characteristics of actuators or soft robots realized by 3D printing technology.