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Unread 10-03-2008, 12:05
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Re: Need help, Titanium / Carbon Fiber / Aluminum

More things to remember:

Three important properties of a material are it's modulus of elasticity, it's yeild strength, and it's tensile strength.

The modulus of elasticity is how much stress it takes to deflect a certain amount. Polycarbonate has a very low modulus of elasticity, steel has a high modulus.

Yield strength is how much stress it takes to permanently deform the material. A soft aluminum alloy such as 3003 has a low yield strength, while a hard alloy like 7075 has a high yield strength.

Tensile strength is how much stress it takes to break the material. You'll find that different alloys of the same material (aluminum, for example) will have different ratios of yield strength to tensile strength--that is, the stronger the alloy, the sooner it breaks after first bending.

Do you want your part to be more flexible, or do you just want it to flex further before becoming permanently bent? A material with a lower modulus of elasticity will generally let it flex a lot more before bending, but a harder material with a higher modulus will take a lot more stress before it finally bends.