Regular tensile testing is important for checking rigid plastics through the entire manufacturing cycle, from the raw material to the forming process and ultimately the production part.
“From a quality standpoint, one of the ways you check your process stability is through routine tests, day-in and day-out, with every batch of material you make,” says Steve Driscoll, professor, department of plastics engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell. “For the producers using the material, it’s the same situation. You are looking at, what happens if your process goes out of whack? What happens if, for some reason, you have a temperature control that’s not working properly—be it an extrusion operation or a blow-molding operation or an injection-molding operation? So by looking at various physical properties, you get a better idea of how robust your process is.