Effect of Dimensional Differences on Tensile Strength in Tensile Test Specimens

Tensile testing is one of the most common mechanical tests performed to understand the properties of materials.Tensile testing is performed to determine elastic and plastic material properties under static load.This method provides helpful information for designers and manufacturers to develop new materials.In tensile tests used for various conditions, there are tensile test specimens of different sizes and shapes.However, in recent years, there has been an increased interest in miniaturized tensile specimens and microtensile testing applications instead of standard tensile testing and standard tensile specimens used to determine the mechanical properties of materials.Due to the reduction of test specimen sizes, it is possible to reduce the amount of material, production cost and the time taken for specimen preparation.When the literature is reviewed, it is observed that the downsizing of test specimen dimensions is mostly performed for metal parts.However, in tests conducted to examine the mechanical properties of plastic parts produced by additive manufacturing methods, the amount of material used, and consequently the resulting waste, is also high.In this study, miniature and standard tensile test specimens were produced using additive manufacturing methods (Fused Deposition Modeling and Stereolithography).A mini tensile mold was designed and fabricated for mini tensile tests.The results showed that mini tensile test specimens can be used instead of standard tensile test specimens.