Development of a Weight-Drop Impact Testing Method for Dental Applications

For evaluating the impact strength of dental materials, the Izod test or Charpy test has been used, but specimen preparation for these tests is difficult due to the adjustment of a notch on them. By contrast, a weight-drop impact test does not require notched specimens. Therefore, it might be possible to measure the impact strength more accurately than conventional methods. This study aimed to establish appropriate conditions for applying the weight-drop impact test on small specimens of acrylic resin. To determine the most reliable impact fracture energy of acrylic resins, different diameters and thicknesses of PMMA resin specimens, diameters and weights of the striker, and diameters of the supporting jig were compared. For all specimen thicknesses, when the striker diameter was 6–10 mm, the impact fracture energy was constant when the inner diameter of the specimen-supporting jig was 8–10 mm. In addition, the measured E(50%) value was mostly equal to the median value of the impact fracture energy. Thus, for the weight-drop impact test, this method was effective for material testing of small specimens, by clearly specifying the test conditions, such as the thickness of disc-shaped specimens, the diameter of the striker, and the inner diameter of the specimen-supporting jig.