The Testing Times

Tinius Olsen has developed a new 3 point bend test jig for testing both interlocking and non-interlocking concrete roofing tiles, and associated fittings for roof and wall cladding materials. This new jig addresses several issues, namely: The load supports have a radius of 10mm to 20 mm. The length of the supports are  longer than the width of the sample tile. The upper loading support and the support nearest the tile tail are free to pivot   along their axis to prevent extraneous loading and any off-centered loading. This transverse strength attachment solution from Tinius Olsen can be used with other manufacturers’ testing machines. This new jig is fully compliant with the BS EN 491 standard.

Tinius Olsen Engineers have designed a new custom attachment for testing the bearing strength of plastics. This attachment is used with Tinius Olsen’s  S and/or  T series of benchtop tensile testers and Horizon software to report bearing strength.  The bearing strength test is designed to replicate the loading on plastics sheet, or plastics products, where rivets, bolts or similar fasteners are used to join sections and show the bearing stress versus the deformation of the hole for rivet/bolt etc. The allowable deformation of the hole in the material should be enough so that there is no looseness of the joint.  As the picture shows, the grip includes an LVDT Extensometer that precisely measures the amount of hole deformation. This attachment follows the guidelines of ASTM D953.

TO’s new grip model 161-001 is designed for testing thermoplastic pipes, using dumbbell shaped specimens that are cut from the walls of thick plastics pipes.  The key feature of these grips is that they are able to accommodate the curvature of the specimens taken from the pipe walls. These grips can test a 60mm deep sample complying with ISO6259-3 Type 1 & ISO527-2 Type 1B standards, and are rated at a maximum load of 25kN and have an operating temperature range of -10 to 50 o C