Mechanical Properties and Wear of Five Commercial Fibre-Reinforced Filling Materials

Objective: To evaluate and compare certain mechanical properties and wear of five commercial short-fibre reinforced composites (Alert, EasyCore, Build-It, TI-Core, and everX Posterior), in relation to their microstructural characteristics. Methods: Fracture toughness, work of fracture, and flexural strength were determined for each material following ISO standards. The specimens (n = 6) were dry stored (37 °C for 2 days) before they were tested. A wear test was conducted with 15,000 chewing cycles using a dual-axis chewing simulator. Wear pattern was analysed by a three-dimensional (3D) noncontact optical profilometer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to evaluate the microstructure of each composite material. The results were statistically analysed using ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey's test. Results: everX Posterior exhibited the highest fracture toughness (2.4 MPa m1/2) among the materials tested (P 0.05). EasyCore presented the highest flexural strength (125.4 MPa), which was not significantly different (P > 0.05) from Alert (119 MPa) and everX Posterior (120 MPa). Lowest wear values were found for EasyCore and Build-It (19 and 22 µm). TI-Core showed significantly higher wear depth (45 µm) than all other materials (P 0.05). Conclusion: Significant differences between commercial short-fibre reinforced composites were found for fracture toughness and wear. Keywords: fracture toughness, short fibre composite, wear