Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Tensile testing vs. Fatigue testing

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Tensile testing vs. Fatigue testing

Two material testing methods that are often misunderstood or incorrectly compared.

1️⃣ Tensile testing

Evaluates material behavior under a single, monotonic, quasi-static load.

Key outputs include:

- Stress – Strain curve

- Yield strength

- Ultimate tensile strength (UTS)

- Young’s modulus

- Uniform and total elongation

Tensile testing characterizes static strength and stiffness, not durability under repeated loading.

2️⃣ Fatigue testing

Evaluates material performance under cyclic loading.

Key outputs include:

- S–N (Wöhler) curves

- Fatigue limit or fatigue strength at a given life

Fatigue testing characterizes damage accumulation and life to failure under repeated stress cycles.

Many times we see engineers compare the materials based on the tensile strength, while in the application the component will be subject to continuous cyclic loading. This usually results in a component passing the static load scenarios, yet failing early in the field due to fatigue.

Fatigue failures are especially common in:

✔ gears

✔ bearings

✔ rotating shafts

✔ brackets and fasteners

✔ thin sheet components

✔ parts exposed to vibration

➡️ Tensile testing tells you how much static load a material can withstand

➡️ Fatigue testing tells you how long the material can be subject to repeated cyclic loading

Both are important, but they solve two very different engineering questions.

Check the 📌 comments for more info on these testing procedures 

source : Damijan Zorko

World’s First: Nylon Filament made from Recycled MJF Waste

The additive manufacturing industry has made huge strides in performance and productivity but one sustainability problem has quietly grown alongside it: unused MJF powder.

Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) is now a mainstream industrial process for producing PA12 nylon parts at scale. Yet even in well-run operations, a meaningful proportion of powder can’t be reused indefinitely and eventually becomes waste.

We’re proud to announce Filamentive rPA12 Recycled Nylon Filament, developed with our partners 3devo and made entirely from unused MJF (Multi Jet Fusion) PA12 powder waste.

In production environments, MJF is valued for repeatability and throughput. But PA12 powder is not an infinite resource. Over time, powder ages, properties shift, and operators are forced to refresh or discard material to maintain part quality. The result is a large and growing stream of “spent” PA12 that often has no easy route back into manufacturing.

Filamentive rPA12 is a premium recycled PA12 nylon filament made from 100% recycled MJF powder waste. It’s supplied in 1.75 mm on a 1 kg spool, extruding to a natural off-white colour. Because this is a recycled material, slight shade variation can occur from batch to batch normal for recycled polymers and a visible reminder that you’re printing with recovered feedstock rather than virgin resin.

The goal wasn’t to create a “green” filament that only works in theory. The goal was to produce a professional nylon filament that can handle real-world applications while dramatically reducing material impact.

 

Nylon filament is one of the most widely used engineering polymers in additive manufacturing for a reason. It offers a rare balance of toughness, flexibility, chemical resistance and dimensional stability—qualities that make it suitable for functional parts, not just prototypes.

rPA12 filament retains the characteristics that make PA12 valuable, including:

Strong mechanical performance with useful flexibility

Nylon 12 combines tensile strength with elongation, which is why it performs well for clips, brackets, snap-fits and mechanically loaded components.

Heat and wear resistance for functional parts

PA12 is widely used where parts see abrasion, repeated handling, friction or elevated temperatures. That makes it well suited for jigs, fixtures, tooling aids and end-use components.

Lower moisture absorption than nylon 6

Compared to nylon 6, nylon 12 typically absorbs significantly less moisture. In practical terms, that means more stable dimensional performance and fewer issues caused by ambient humidity although drying is still essential for best results.

Chemical resistance in demanding environments

PA12 is naturally resistant to oils, greases, fuels and many industrial fluids. For automotive, robotics and industrial environments, that resistance is often the difference between a usable part and a short-lived one.

 

source : Filamentive 

Driving the future of mobility through innovation 🚗🌱

From lightweighting and e-mobility solutions to bio-based plastics and PFAS-alternative surface protection, Mitsubishi Chemical Group is applying the KAITEKI philosophy to enable safer, more sustainable transportation.

Discover how advanced materials are shaping resilient, high-performance, and environmentally responsible mobility solutions.

source :Mitsubishi Chemical America

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : How do you size a press for an insert mold without guessing?

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

How do you size a press for an insert mold without guessing?

Insert molding comes with its own set of challenges, especially when it comes to machine selection.

You’re not just injecting plastic. You’re integrating parts, managing vertical clearances, coordinating rotary tables or shuttle movements, and often dealing with temperature-sensitive inserts like metal or pre-molded components.

The mistake I see too often? Picking a machine based only on clamp tonnage or tie-bar spacing. That might work for simple overmolds, but it completely overlooks:

1. Platen layout and accessibility

2. Safety and ergonomics for manual insert placement

3. Compatibility with rotary tables or sliding platens

4. Stroke length needed for clearance during loading/unloading

5. Injection speed and control needed for fragile or multi-material interfaces

These kinds of applications often require deeper planning. It’s not just about what fits, but how it runs, how it's loaded, and how much flexibility the setup allows.

That’s why I always recommend a functional layout review before committing to a machine for insert molding. Even better, start from the part and build upward. That’s where we can really identify which platform makes the most sense and whether vertical or horizontal execution offers the right mix of performance and simplicity.

If you’re working on insert or overmold projects, especially ones with rotary tables or high-value components, let’s take a closer look together. You’ll catch potential problems before they show up in production.

source : Roman Malisek

PARA ARAMID WASTE AVAILABLE IN BRAZIL

 PARA ARAMID WASTE:

We are pleased to present a new procurement opportunity involving a lot of 100% para-aramid waste, consisting of approximately 11 metric tons of cut ropes and 1 metric ton of tangled filaments. Kindly refer to the attached photographs for your preliminary assessment.

The material has been recovered from subsea electro-hydraulic umbilicals and is available for immediate allocation.

Our commercial offer is inclusive of ocean freight to the port of destination under CFR Incoterms. The total volume can be efficiently shipped in one 40-foot container, delivered CFR to your designated port.

We welcome expressions of interest from qualified buyers. On-site inspection in Brazil can be arranged to ensure full transparency and facilitate a smooth and compliant transaction process.

Please feel free to contact us should you require further technical specifications or wish to proceed with due diligence.

Embossed, Label-Free PLA Water Bottle Design Simplifies Circularity

Removing labels from bottles is emerging as a practical way to improve recycling efficiency and a new embossed PLA water bottle shows how design choices can directly support circular packaging systems.

A label-free beverage bottle developed for the South Korean market uses embossed branding to replace conventional labels, eliminating one of the main obstacles to efficient bottle recycling. By integrating brand identification directly into the bottle wall, the design allows bottles to enter recycling streams without additional processing, supporting cleaner material flows and higher-quality recycled output.

The embossed approach preserves shelf recognition and visual appeal, while avoiding the need for manual label removal—supporting both operational efficiency and material purity in recycling processes.

The bottle is designed to integrate into a closed-loop PLA recycling system established by #TotalEnergiesCorbion and Sansu (i’m eco). Post-consumer bottles are collected, pre-processed, and chemically recycled via hydrolysis, breaking #PLA down into its original building block lactic acid monomer—which is then reused to produce new recycled #Luminy® PLA (rPLA) with consistent material performance.

Made from Luminy® PLA, TotalEnergies Corbion’s #biobasedplastic designed for recycling and composting, the bottle demonstrates how material innovation and recycling infrastructure can be aligned to enable circular reuse at scale.

Recent independently verified #LifeCycleAssessment (LCA) results further support the environmental performance of this approach. According to the latest Luminy® PLA LCA, virgin PLA achieves a significantly lower carbon footprint compared with conventional plastics, while incorporating recycled PLA enables carbon-neutral and carbon-negative material options, depending on recycled content.

From early recycling trials in 2021 to the commercial launch of a label-free bottle today, the collaboration between TotalEnergies Corbion and Sansu (i’m eco) illustrates how front-end packaging design and back-end recycling innovation can be developed together to create scalable circular solutions.

Hao Ding, Global Marketing Director at TotalEnergies Corbion said: “As markets increasingly focus on recyclability, carbon performance, and consumer acceptance, this project demonstrates the potential of PLA-based solutions to meet functional requirements while supporting broader circular economy objectives—without compromising brand recognition or industrial performance.

source : TotalEnergies Corbion