Flexural strength testing has become increasingly important for plastics—especially composite and carbon fiber-reinforced plastics—as structural parts in the aerospace industry are made from these newer materials.

Engineers and researchers typically reach for sensors when they want to evaluate the stress-strain characteristics of materials or look at how applied forces affect objects, but now there’s a better way.

They’re as common as dandelions in the spring, and as universal as a Swiss army knife. Sometimes they gather dust, condemned to a dark corner, other times they’re polished to a mirror finish from intensive everyday use. We’re talking, of course, about universal testing machines (UTMs).

Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, published in his thesis Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) in 1687, are what modern-day physicists and metrologists refer to when they describe force as any interaction that, if unopposed, will change the motion of an object. 

Why test compression force?

Single-column testers today represent the largest single market segment of the force testing marketplace for a number of reasons.

Lloyd Instruments materials and force testers from AMETEK Test & Calibration Instruments now include a specially developed jig for easy determination of peel strength of the aluminum foil on contact lens blister packs. 

Uncertainty is among the many variables that need to be considered when performing force testing.

Mark-10 introduces its new Model ESM303 force tester, a highly configurable single-column solution for tension and compression measurement applications up to 300 lbF (1.5 kN).