A strip of material for use in a tensile testing machine. The dimensions of the test strip(i don't have the exact ASTM D reference number in front of me) are standardised so the tensile properties can be compared with other materials. The machine grips either end of the strip and pulls the grippers apart at constant speed, whilst measuring the force required, this is usually done until the strip is destroyed (unless you want to look at elastic properties etc).

We are currently printing these in HDPE, and comparing the results with stamped out HDPE sheet. We have plans to move onto other materials also. The aim is to print with various patterns of infill, in order to see how the properties change, and eventually use this data to come up with build rules. The build rules will tell you how much material to print in an area, in order to withstand the forces you expect to apply (and help to design stronger parts with less plastic). There is obviously alot of knowledge about this for injection moulding etc, but very little on fused deposition modelling/fused filament modelling.

Not the most fun part to print, but if you have some spare printer time and want to help us out we would appreciate it if you sent us some copies of it, from any material. There is an address on my profile, feel free to contact me for any info. Thanks!

To be printed with various infill patterns (hexagonal, rectangular, line).
I'm not sure on the scaling at the moment, will update with the expected dimensions asap.
I think it should be about 70mm long, please let me know if I haven't exported the .stl correctly, or any other problems with it.