We tend to take cardboard packaging for granted, despite its increasing importance in our everyday lives. With the advent of online shopping, more and more of our purchases are shipped to our homes inside cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes.
Compression is the application of pushing or crushing forces acting upon an object or a material that allows it to become squeezed or squashed. It is the opposite of tension, or the application of pulling forces that allow a material to stretch or elongate.
Nondestructive testing (NDT) is a type of testing that allows for the examination or analysis of materials and components without sacrificing their usefulness.
Pick up a material analysis data sheet and you’ll always find tensile testing, and probably flexural testing as well. But depending on the application, don’t hold your breath looking for compressive testing.
Not long ago, a manufacturer of needles for medical syringes was in the middle of another shift of quality assurance testing. The test involved three individuals side-by-side, with each grabbing the needles off the line and physically inserting them into a drill “chuck,” piercing a rubber slab to simulate the piercing of human skin.
Fatigue testing varies greatly from application to application. Below are some of the top six examples to showcase how fatigue testing has become invaluable in a range of industries.
Compression after impact (CAI) testing involves subjecting a specimen to a prescribed impact load, checking the state of damage to the specimen by a nondestructive method, and then performing compression testing of that specimen.
The mechanical testing of composite materials involves a range of test types, a plethora of standards, and the need to condition and test in a variety of different environments.
Composite materials are being used in an ever-increasing variety of products and applications, as more and more industries realize the benefits that these materials offer.