Autograph ag x

Compressive properties
of hydrogels
were analyzed using a Q800 dynamic mechanical analyzer (TA Instruments,
New Castle) with the compression configuration. Samples with dimensions
of 5 × 5 mm² and thicknesses ranging between 2 and
5 mm were tested in wet conditions (800% of swelling degree). Tests
were carried out with a 1 mN preload and a strain rate of 5% min^–1. The compressive modulus was calculated from the
slope of the initial linear region of the stress–strain curves
(strain value lower than 5%). Ten measurements were taken for each
sample and averaged.
Tensile properties of the hydrogels were
measured using a Shimadzu Autograph AG-X universal testing machine
(Shimadzu Corp., Kyoto, Japan) equipped with a load cell of 1 kN.
Tests were performed at a strain rate of 2 mm min^–1 and with a gauge length of 20 mm. The samples were in the form of
strips of 6 mm width and 80 mm length and were tested in wet conditions
(800% of swelling degree for comparison under similar conditions).
Ten measurements were taken for each sample and averaged. Statistical
analysis at a 5% significance level based on Levene’s test
was used to assess the equality of variances, and the ANOVA test was
performed to compare the averages of the mechanical properties.

The compressive strength and Young’s modulus values of the biomaterials (9 mm in diameter and 9 mm in length) were measured using an Autograph AG-X plus (Shimadzu Corp. Kioto, Japan) testing machine, under the following parameters: crosshead moving speed of 5 mm/min, load cell accuracy of 0.1 N. The compressive stress was estimated to be 30% of strain.

SSD of the films was performed using a universal tensile testing machine (Shimadzu Autograph AGX, Kyoto, Japan) equipped with a temperature chamber and a load cell of 1 kN (Figure 1a). The drawing was performed at 140 °C, a rate of 100 mm/min, and the maximum draw ratio (DR) of 2.5 (the final gauge length divided by the original gauge length). The drawing temperature is chosen according to the DSC analysis of neat PA6 shown in Figure 1b, above the glass transition temperature (≈65 °C) [27 (link)] and below the cold crystallization temperature. The PA6-nanocomposite samples before and after drawing are shown in Figure 1c. The samples after SSD are marked with “O” before the sample name.

Samples for mechanical tests were produced and prepreg-coated according to relevant standards (Figure 4). Tensile, compressive, and shear tests were performed using the Shimadzu Autograph AG-X (Tokyo, Japan), which has a 10 kN load cell and data acquisition system, at a uniform crosshead speed of 1 mm·min⁻¹ in accordance with the related ASTM standards [43 ,44 ,45 ]. To determine the Poisson ratio and shear modulus, strain gauges from the Tokyo Measuring Instruments Lab. (Tokyo, Japan), including both one-axis and two-axis variants, were used. Data were collected using a TDS-540 data logger device (Tokyo, Japan).

Mechanical properties of bioplastic film such as tensile strength, Young’s Modulus and elongation at break were determined according to ASTM D882-02 [37 ] using Universal Testing Machine (Autograph AG-X, Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan) interfaced with computer operating Trapezium software (Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan). Measurements were performed with load cell of 500 N, crosshead speed of 5 mm/min and grip separation of 30 mm. Three readings were taken from three random places of each film, measuring 7 × 1 cm. The average values of the three measurements were reported.

The mechanical properties of bioplastic film such as tensile strength and elongation at break were determined using Universal Testing Machine (Autograph AG-X, Shimadzu, Japan) interfaced with computer operating Trapezium software. Measurements were performed with load cell of 500 N, crosshead speed of 5 mm/min and grip separation of 30 mm. Three readings were taken from three random places of each film, measuring 7 cm × 1 cm. The average values from three measurements were reported.