Fig 7. Effect of autoclaving and plasma sterilisation to printed materials.

Tension (A) and bending (B) test were performed according to EN ISO 527 and 178. FFF printed material showed no change in material properties when treated by plasma sterilisation up to 3 times, but autoclaving significantly reduced tensile and flexural strength of the material. In SLA-printed material, no significant loss of tensile and flexural strength could be measured, but autoclaving tends to be more corruptive to the material over time. Materials printed by SLS show a significant increase of the tensile strength when sterilised for the first time, but no further impact when sterilised up to 3 times. In flexural strength, however, both methods tend to downgrade the material properties but do not show significances. All significances are referring to the control and are indicated by *. n = 3.