Question: How would you test your 3d printed structures?

Andrew Phillips answered on 24 Jun 2015:

We are testing them using materials testing machines that allow us to see how they deflect and deform under load. There is a really nice technique that allows us to track every part of the printed bone just using photographs, so the experiments are pretty quick to set up.

When we start doing some higher rate loading experiments (including blast) we will have to use special high speed cameras, and will have to look through the film to try and work out what is going on. The experiments take a long time to set up and analyse, but last less than a second!

This is a really cool time lapse video of another blast test being set-up: http://blogs.plos.org/thestudentblog/2011/08/04/the-beat-of-the-scientific-drum/