When testing materials used in an F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter aircraft or the X33 Recoverable Launch Vehicle, the testing materials have to stand up to some very challenging conditions. You need to work with sophisticated and accurate testing systems that can simulate these conditions. For more than 30 years, Westmoreland Mech-anical Testing and Research Inc. (Youngs-town, PA, WMT&R) has worked with testing systems from Instron Corp. (Canton, MA).
Founded in 1967, the building blocks for WMT&R were stress rupture and creep testing for aerospace and defense industries. Today, WMT&R runs commercial testing labs, with services that include advanced research and materials testing for many different industries, including power generation, aerospace, nuclear, automotive and defense. The company has put a wide range of materials to the test over the years, including aluminum and titanium (used in aerospace and defense), nickel, iron, cobalt, steel alloys, metal matrix composites, intermetallics, plastics, powdered metals, super alloys and various steels. The company has even conducted mechanical testing on gold and silver for dental and electronic applications and tensile tests on platinum.