FUD - does it degrade in UV light ?

I was reading one of my model railway forums and came across a comment that "Shapeways FUD is also UV sensitive, and can degrade over time, though paint can help protect it "

Now this was not my understanding , I thought UV light was used to cure it, but that further exposure to UV light, as in sunlight, would not affect it?

Can someone with more detailed knowledge please confirm one way or the other ? If he's wrong I'd like to correct him, but I want to be sure of my facts first.

Tom

Not sure, but I'll see if I can't find out!

I think the general answer is along the lines of 'No more than the Urethane resins than are commonly used.'

Well the official answer is:

FUD cures with UV light, so even after we ship it, extra UV exposure will keep curing it--although the effects are slight. However, it will continue to get stiffer (also more brittle), and start to yellow slightly.

Also I'm moving this to the 3D printing support section.

So we are saying it does degrade ? - eventually it will get brittle and break easily.

So how long have all out FUD masterpieces got? Are we taking years or decades ?

Still I suppose it means they will be rarer in the future..........


Tom

Just think of it as built-in obsolescence

I have some UV LEDs and FUD models. Any idea what wavelength would cause the most degredation? I'm all up for testing if my LEDs are right (I'll have to check what wavelength my LEDs are though)