I've designed a part that will need to survive under some stress, specifically under tension. I can print it in either the Acrylic Plastic family (white, black or transparent acrylic) or in Frosted Ultra Detail (it's too large for Frosted Extreme Detail). Which material is less likely to be pulled apart? Do the different materials perform differently under different kinds of stress, like compression or bending forces?
The material strengths vary widely based upon thickness. All of the "minimum" thicknesses listed are for the item to maintain stability within the printer, and/or the cleaning and shipping processes. Unfortunately, there are no measurements available of strength under tension. I can relate this non-scientific finding: I have a FUD item (http://shpws.me/GXO9) that is approx 2" long and has walls that are over 1mm thick. I believe that I could place it under a 10lb weight without risking any breakage. Of, course, geometry also plays into a large amount of the strength.
Just as a general rule, I don't use FUD for anything meant to survive stress and strain. FUD plastic has a very little flexibility but not much very thin parts will snap almost as soon as you put light pressure on it. Parts over 1mm are, obviously, stronger but are still nonetheless fragile. For anything that's just supposed to look like the finished product without needing to be functional, FUD is great. I've never used Acrylic so I can't say anything about it. Strong and Flexible plastics are great for applications where there's some stress and strain and are probably better for your application from what I've read. They are rather strong plastics that, yes, are flexible and much sturdier than FUD. Edit: didn't realize this was from January.