Mechanical Testing
We offer testing of plastics and rubbers with our equipment, such as tensile, compression, bending, tear and adhesion tests. Tests are performed on the specimens or products of plastic and rubber. We can also assist by producing test specimens. Normally a test is conducted according to some national or international standard we are accredited for. But custom test programs are often used.
Tensile tests
The most common method to mechanically evaluate products or materials is to tensile test them. We perform all forms of tensile tests, even at both low and high temperatures (-40º C / 200º C). Normally, we use a non-contact video extensometer for measuring deformation, which is very useful for long strains. The most common material standards are ISO 37 for rubber and ISO 527 for plastic.
Compression tests
Many rubber products and cellular plastic products are subjected to large compression loads during their use. We measure the compression characteristics for all types of materials. Typical standards include ISO 7743 for rubber and ISO 844 for cellular plastics.
Testing of adhesion, friction, flexural and shear properties
Tensile testers are often called universal testing machines because of the possibility to measure all types of relationships between a movement and a force. Such measurements can, for example be bending, shearing, tearing, friction or adhesion between various products. We can carry out a wide variety of such measurements, which often require special adaptions with different fixtures.
We also perform fatigue tests with many repeated loads. We have almost no upper or lower limit on how high forces we can measure.
Impact tests
Many products do not fail due to prolonged stress, but by sudden impact loads. The difference is in how fast the force is applied. The strength of polymer materials is strongly dependent on deformation speed. We perform impact tests in a variety of geometries such as bending, tensile and free-falling dart. Our machines have instrumentation to follow the exact break mechanism. Typical standards include ISO 7765-2 for instrumented free-falling dart puncture tests, ASTM D-1822 for tensile impact and ISO 179-2 for instrumented Charpy bending impact tests.