What do you do when your outdated hydraulic materials testing machine breaks or your customer requires a test that cannot be performed with your existing system?  Do you replace the testing system with a new one or do you upgrade/retrofit with new software and controls?

A universal testing machine is used to measure the mechanical properties of materials in tension, compression, bending or torsion.  Mechanical properties of interest for plastics in bending are Flexural Strength, Flexural Stress at Break, Tangent, Secant and Chord Modulus of Elasticity.  ASTM D790 Flexural Properties of Unreinforced and Reinforced Plastics and Electrical Insulating Materials governs the flexural testing of plastics.  In bending, a testing machine is used to create a stress-strain diagram (Figure 1) from which all mechanical properties are derived.  A true picture of the stress-strain diagram can only be obtained through accurate measurements.  

Tension tests provide information on the strength and ductility of metals under uniaxial tensile stresses. ASTM E8 Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials specifies how to perform the strength and ductility tests for metals.  Strength refers to the ability of a structure to resist loads without failure due to excessive stress or deformation. Ductility is a measure of a metals ability to deform under tensile stresses. Ductility is important in metal forming processes, as metals that crack or break under stress cannot be manipulated by hammering, rolling or drawing.

If you seek to learn about thread tensile testing or the ASTM D2256 test method, please read this article.  This page assumes you understand the test and you already own an an ADMET universal testing machine preloaded from the factory with this test method installed.  Good luck, and call us should you have any questions.

If you seek to learn about the ASTM D1876 T-Peel adhesive peel test, please read this article.  This page assumes you understand the test and you already own an an ADMET universal testing machine.  If your machine came preloaded from the factory with this test method installed, you can skip the "how to program" video.  Good luck, and call us should you have any questions.

If you seek to learn about the ASTM D822 tensile & elongation test, please read this article.  This page assumes you understand the test and you already own an an ADMET universal testing machine.  If your machine came preloaded from the factory with this test method installed, you can skip the "how to program" video.  Good luck, and call us should you have any questions.

If you seek to learn about the ASTM D1894 coefficient of friction test (COF), please read this article.  This page assumes you understand the test and you already own an ADMET universal testing machine and COF fixture.  If your machine came preloaded from the factory with the COF test method installed, you can skip the "how to program" video.  Good luck, and call us should you have any questions.

In the field of materials testing, there are certain words and phrases that must be understood in order to correctly assess the properties of any given material.  This guide will provide you with a quick reference for any terms that may be unfamiliar.

Understanding a Universal Testing Machine Motor Control System

The mechanical properties of a material are determined by using a testing machine to push, pull or twist a sample of the material. Many materials are strain rate sensitive which means their properties vary with test speed. A valid comparison of mechanical properties between suppliers can only be achieved if the same test speed is used by all.

The American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the International Standard Organization (ISO) are two organizations that govern mechanical test specifications. Each specification requires that the force be applied at a specific strain, crosshead position or stress rate. One function of the testing machine controller is to ensure that the specified test rate is accurately maintained throughout the test. Universal testing machines are electromechanically or hydraulically actuated. Here, we will consider an electromechanical testing machine that uses a motor control system for force actuation. ADMET's MTESTQuattro(R) Materials Testing System controller is part of the motor control system and is responsible for regulating the speed of the motor. A schematic diagram of the motor control system is shown in Figure 1. See link to Full Article below Figure 1, 2 & 3. 

Follow these steps to set up data aquisition in MTESTQuattro