Expected lifespan of printed Durable resin parts

General Discussion
1

Hi,

I am looking for some input so I can predict the expected lifespan of 3d printed durable parts. According to Formlabs it will be 1 to 2 years but this is not tested. Since this material is around for 3 years now maybe one of you has some durable parts laying around form that early period and can tell me how the material is holding?

does it go brittle or decolour?

2

Hey @bschulte,

While you’re correct that we haven’t done official internal testing on the long term durability(hah!) of Durable. All that being said, Let me ask around the office a bit and maybe I can at least get some anecdotal feedback for you!

Hopefully, someone in our community can help here also!

3

Hi Dan,

I appreciate it. Hope you find some old prints.

Barry

4

I have some year old prints that seem to be holding up fine. They’re not under load or anything right now though, just kind of lying around and also indoors (since UV exposure will likely degrade the parts if set outdoors).

1 Like
5

I have printed a vacuum cleaner adapter in durable quite soon after the material came out. It holds up well, but it isn’t used very much and it isn’t exposed to UV light.

6

thanks leon and p3d. encouraging news. My products will be used indoors so uv light exposure should be limited. We are also in the midst of testing parts under a UV curing lamps for an extensive period (weeks maybe month(s) depending on daily change.

let’s see what happens…

but any feedback is still appreciated…

7

We have a stresstest print from over a year ago in my office. It’s been in the cure box well over a cumulative week by now and it still bounces unharmed when we chuck it at the floor. We find the stuff tears long, long before it gets brittle.

8

Thanks.
Our own test is now 12 days on its ways and the material still holds well indeed… seemingly unchanged characteristics besides some yellowing. We’ll proceed the test and see how long it holds. We are now trying to figure out how 24 hours of uv curing lamps relates to real sunlight and life-time expectations… our first calculation resulted in 24hrs of Uv curing equals 30 days in sun exposure. Don’t have the formula at hand due to a holidaytrip. Will post later…

But does anyone have already figured this out maybe?