Analysis of the Effectiveness of Commonly Used 3D Printing Materials Inside of a Vacuum

Objects must meet certain standards in order to withstand placement in a vacuum chamber and maintain the presence of the vacuum, which can create issues regarding time and cost efficiency. The experimental study qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes data gathered from testing several commonly used materials for 3D printing inside of a vacuum chamber to determine which materials are most effective using a variety of equipment, including a Pfeiffer HiCube vacuum pump, cold cathode gauge, hot cathode gauge, and Convectron gauge. These gauges were connected to individual Arduino’s which converted the electric potential output by the gauges into values of pressure. Next, the collected data was plotted and fitted by a computer program written in python. The materials were then compared to one another qualitatively. The project is ongoing as we try to find equations to fit the data and make the outgassing comparison more quantitative.

Keywords: 3-D Printing, vacuum, out-gassing, cathode, guage.