The Testing Times

Building Trust Through Innovation in Materials Testing: LTI and Tinius Olsen’s Collaborative Journey Introduction In the world of materials testing, precision and reliability are paramount. Companies in high-stakes industries such as aerospace, nuclear, and additive manufacturing depend on advanced technology to meet rigorous standards. Based outside of Philadelphia, PA, Laboratory Testing Inc. (LTI) has been at the forefront of materials testing for over 40 years, ensuring that its clients receive the highest level of accuracy and efficiency. Its long-standing relationship with Tinius Olsen has played a crucial role in fostering innovation, streamlining testing processes, and enhancing overall efficiency. A Relationship Built on Collaboration LTI’s partnership with Tinius Olsen is more than just a customer-supplier relationship — it is a dynamic collaboration. Over the years, LTI has provided valuable feedback to Tinius Olsen, influencing the development of new and improved...

Challenge the Naysayers in Engineering Design The engineering design field has witnessed a multitude of profound changes and emerging trends in the past decade with digital transformation in full swing. As companies harness available technologies and leverage design innovation and products to enhance business capabilities and customers’ experience, engineers are facing new and complex challenges to adapt processes and ensure product reliability. This rapid growth of technology is reshaping the way engineers design and develop equipment as they look further into the future to ensure compliance for quality testing of products to meet both existing and evolving standards. Thanks to this, the role of engineering redesign and quality testing has become more crucial than ever. And while some may think these new challenges merely pose stumbling blocks, we see them as ways to improve the role of materials testing across all applicable industries. Maintain Design Integrity Engineers...

New Extensometer Technology Facilitates Better Materials Testing With tight timelines and even tighter budgets, the pressure to deliver high-caliber products has never been more important. In a world where quality and reliability can make or break a company’s reputation, cost-effective testing techniques that improve testing efficiency and benefit from modern technological advancements are the ones that will give R&D, engineers and test facilities a distinct advantage. Since the standardization of extensometry in the 1950s, the use of an extensometer—a sophisticated ruler used to measure displacement or strain on the surface of a test piece—has not changed significantly. However, it has become evident that this testing methodology needed a boost to keep pace with modern applications, where other computing mechanisms have been built into materials testing systems. Increased Test Efficiency The introduction of new optical extensometer technology has made traditional, mechanic...

Two Test Systems, One Software Platform Technology innovations in materials testing aren’t just providing better data analytics, they are also providing improved testing efficiencies. In an industry predicated on long-standing industry standards that dictate the parameters of test results—including precision, repeatability and accuracy—we’re still finding ways and opportunities to improve testing efficiency across the industry and focus on improvements, where it makes sense. Because the standards themselves don’t change much from year to year, we can seek other methods of process improvement. Digitizing test information using updated tools, like enhanced software packages , has allowed users to collect, manipulate, analyze, graph and store data in ways that previously were just not feasible. This ability to make testing data more actionable gives us deeper insights into our materials testing operations. Streamlined Process Through Software Advancement Prior to the use of intuit...