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

A problem one customer was trying to eliminate was the potential of electrical connectors separating in their application which could be in highly inaccessible areas. In this application, the connectors are being used to supply power to sensors used to determine the presence of oil in drilled wells in the sea bed or deep in the desert. This test attempts to simulate what the sensors could be subjected to by rotating the power connector by +/- 100 degrees and repeating this cycle 2000 times. The solution our engineering design team came up with is one of our 5kN test frames, a customized jig to hold the specimen and a mechanical fixture that rotates the specimen 100 degrees as the crosshead is raised; the machine and fixtures are connected to a pc running our Horizon software that controls the test frame and monitors the data coming from it. As for the final result, operator looks for any visual wear in the connector.

Another new innovative testing system has been released by our engineering design teams working with medical industry professional who want to perform tensile tests on a range of materials for producing Synthetic Skin. This new accessory is a vertically mounted, temperature controlled, fluid bath that becomes a saline tank. This particular application used with a Tinius Olsen 5KT single column testing machine and a pair of medical grade 50N capacity vice grips that keeps the specimens in a saline solution while the tensile test is performed. The bath is filled from a reservoir tank and the system has multiple sensors to control the filling of bath and temperature of the Saline Solution . What makes this test fixture unique is that it allows tensile tests to be performed on specimens that are underwater, with no change to the testing machine.

Tinius Olsen is proud to now offer side loading hydraulic wedge grips for use with our Super L, U Series, Electomatic, and LoCap series of testers. These new grips feature a variety of optional wedge faces/grips and require their own hydraulic power pack for operation. Time tested and well proven in the field, these grips are a popular addition to Tinius Olsen's grip offering and are available in rated capacities of either 120kN or 300kN. To learn more about these grips, see the datasheet/specification sheet on our corporate website.

The next step in the evolution of materials testing has arrived with the introduction of Horizon software from Tinius Olsen. This software has all the power of its popular Test Navigator software, but also incorporates the 'nice' features of its QMat software, including a huge library of standards test routines (including ASTM, EN, ISO and other international standards organization's testing standards), the ability to perform tests across different batches, and the ability to re-examine earlier test results. In addition Horizon incorporates the functionality of other Tinius Olsen software such as EP600 for use with their melt indexers, and Impact software for use with their impact testers. Why is this the next evolution you ask? All these applications can be running at the same time and one pc can be controlling multiple types of machines all at the same time. Once the results are in, reports can be made that include different physical results and can be sent across company