Testing & Instruments

The tensile test is one of the most common physical measurements in the rubber laboratory. Evaluating the average or median stress-strain behavior for five replicate specimens gives a quick and broad assessment of rubber mechanical properties. Tensile testing can provide even more insights into rubber formulation effects, quality of mixing, and their impact on product durability by testing more replicates to characterize the tensile strength distribution or statistical failure population. It is the aim of this article to highlight this simple and useful testing approach.

TTS exploits the unique equivalence of time and temperature in soft materials to allow engineers to characterize materials rapidly and accelerate the design cycle.

The purpose of performing material testing is to ensure the
properties of the materials will meet specific requirements.
Proper testing on a material testing/force stand ensures that the
material will respond appropriately when placed under the expected
usage conditions, or meet the standards required for
product development. For rubber materials, the properties are
often found by testing the raw component before it is made into
the final product.

Tensile testing is arguably the most common test method used in both force measurement and material testing. Tensile testing is used primarily to determine the mechanical behavior of a component, part or material under static, axial loading.

The C11 Wallace compression stress relaxometer allows flexibility and enables different samples over varying time periods to be tested.

Changes in compound chemistry are evaluated differently based on the chosen abrasion test and on the immediate test settings used.