Mechanical Testing
Engineering mechanical properties of materials
Stress-strain curves can be generated allowing for the characterization of strength, Young’s modulus, yield stress, toughness, and strain at break.
Universal Mechanical Tester
| Instrument | Criterion model 43, MTS |
| Force capacity (load cells available) | 1 kN 10 kN |
| Force range | 10 – 1000 N (1kN) 100 N – 10 kN (10 kN) |
| Travel distance | 32 in / 820 mm ± 0.000002 in / 0.00005 mm |
| Test speed | 0.0002 – 78.7 in/min / 0.005 – 2,000 mm/min |
| Temperature range | 41 – 104°F / 5 – 41°C |
| Material | ca. 40 mm wide bars or dogbones |
Performs mechanical testing, including tensile testing (stress at break), elongation, and compression testing. While the mechanical analyzer is better equipped for large samples, dogbones of 40 mm can be accommodated. The pneumatic clamps allow for a constant grip that can adapt to changing sample thicknesses as extension occurs. Only engineering strain can be measured as the cross-sectional area is not monitored during the experiment.
Force Analyzer
| Instrument | Model F-305, Mark-10 |
| Force capacity (load cells available) | 1 kN |
| Force range | 0 – 1000 N ± 1 N |
| Travel distance | 18.0 in / 457 mm ± 0.002 in / 0.05 mm |
| Speed range | 0.02 – 45 in/min / 0.5 – 1,100 mm/min ±0.2% |
| Material | < 40 mm wide bars or dogbones thread-like materials |
Mechanical analyzer suited to force analysis of materials. The force analyzer performs similar tests to the universal analyzer, namely tensile testing (stress at break), elongation, and compression testing. Additionally, frequency dependent elongation and compression tests can be performed. The force analyzer is best suited to softer materials than those tested on the universal analyzer, but smaller materials can be more easily accommodated, including bars < 40 mm wide, thread-like materials, etc. Only engineering strain can be measured as the cross-sectional area is not monitored during the experiment.
