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I can't find anything on this. Every source I can find on UV cured polymers describe the process and how they're cured using UV radiation but nothing on what the resistance to UV is once it has cured.

Specifically I'm looking at the Stratasys PolyJet (http://www.stratasys.com/materials/material-safety-data-sheets/polyjet) line of resins which are supposed to be very similar to PMMA in mechanical properties but I can't find anything on whether this extends to UV.

If anyone with more knowledge on polymers can help me out that would be greatly appreciated.

Fred
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pulse89
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1 Answers1

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I can provide an anecdotal answer. We use UV cured adhesives to bond pieces inside of our UV lasers. These lasers produce intense UV light, some of which is scattered around inside of the laser head. The exposure to those specific UV wavelengths is much more intense than the exposure of a piece of material laying out in the sun. Bond failure, however, is not an issue for us.

Chris Mueller
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  • A Stratasys employee was able to provide me with the UV Absorbency of the PolyJet materials (DropBox link). Looks quite high so I am not optimistic about the resistance to UV :( – pulse89 Nov 04 '15 at 05:50
  • @pulse89 Yeah, it doesn't look promising. Absorption does not necessarily equal material degradation though. I know, for instance, that in glasses UV causes them to get more dense, but to they eye they still look just fine. You also need high absorption for the UV to activate the polymer in the first place; it could be that the consistent UV exposure actually continues to make the material stronger. – Chris Mueller Nov 04 '15 at 13:12