The Testing Times

To improve usability we have extended the range of insulation grips to include a screw based closing mechanism. This gives the ability to close the grip like a vice and so you are relying on the mechanical advantage provided by the screw rather than by the lever, this can offer more control of the sample alignment and help prevent a jaw break... There are interchangable teeth, depending on requirements.

Imagine trying to hold a piece of fibre insulation (the stuff in your roof that stops the heat escaping) in a clamp and then pulling it apart using a tensile test, how on earth do you do it? It’s fibrous, comes in different thicknesses, breaks of easily into chunks… Well the answer is Nails, and lots of them. This is the most effective way to distribute the load across and through this particular sample, this means that the test specimen isn’t overly damaged when you grip it. If the sample is ‘waisted’ properly (like an hour glass), it will break in the weakest spot, not by the grip. This is a technique used time and again with all kinds of samples. You want to see how the material will break under load, not how the grip breaks it, and then the load pull it apart. As there are a lot of nails it’s quite hard to push them through the top surface of the specimen (Imagine trying to nail 20 nails at once into something soft. It might be soft but there is a lot of friction to overcome). To ...