Monotonic loading and fatigue response of a bio-based polyamide PA11 and a petrol-based polyamide PA12 manufactured by selective laser sintering

Polyamide 11 (PA11) is obtained from vegetable oil and presents similar characteristics to the petroleum-based polyamide 12 (PA12). Thanks to its particular thermal properties, PA11 is suitable (as PA12 is) to be manufactured by selective laser sintering (SLS), an additive manufacturing technique. In this work, the mechanical performance of PA12 and PA11 processed by SLS was compared under various ambient conditions. It is shown that PA11 has higher toughness and ductility, especially at low temperature, at expense of a mild decrease in modulus. PA11 also presented the highest hydrothermal aging resistance. The fatigue resistance was also superior in PA11 under the studied conditions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.