Uses of the Universal Tensile Machine

A tensile testing machine is a machine used to test the tensile strength of different materials, such as polymers. Tensile strength refers to the ability of a material to resist being pulled apart. A universal tensile machine, or universal tensile tester, is a tensile testing machine that is able to perform many different tensile tests, rather than just one. Despite its name, universal tensile machines do not perform all the tensile tests you could possible carry out. Rather, there are a number of different universal tensile machines that perform a set of the available tensile tests.

Tensile Tests

Tensile tests are experiments designed to determine the degree to which a material or substance can be pulled apart before it breaks. Tensile testing machines often come with adjustable load cells, grips and fixtures that may be adjusted in order to perform different sorts of strength tests at the same time as tensile tests.

Universal Tensile Tester Types

There are several different types of universal tensile tester configurations available. A short list includes single screw tensile testers, twin screen tensile testers, tensile testing machines with coefficient of friction measurements and tensile testers with compression. While these are all similar in function, they have areas of specialty. The tensile tester with compression, for example, is capable of testing materials for tensile strength as well as compressive strength, which is the measure of a material's ability to resist being crushed, rather than being pulled apart.

Applications

These machines are typically used to test the mechanical properties of polymers. Polymers are large molecules made up of discrete structural units called monomers. Examples of commonly used polymers are plastic and putty. Tensile strength is often the most important property of a polymer, since most end uses of polymers involve some amount of mechanical loading, flexing or elongating, among other load-bearing functions.

Standards

Standards governing the manufacturing and use of universal tensile testers are provided by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). ASTM provides voluntary consensus standards affecting many different industries and workplaces worldwide. ASTM standards that are relevant to universal tensile testers include ASTM D638, ASTM D822, ASTM D790 and ASTM D695.

References

• Universal Tensile Tester