The properties of plastics and rubber products are closely related to their composition, fillers used, processing aids additives, processing methods, etc. In order to fully understand the performance of the plastics and rubber products, it is necessary to conduct wide ranging tests on these plastics and rubber products. At AdvanSES, we are a plastic rubber testing laboratory and fully equipped to utilize these test methods and provide a full 360 degree of your material and product performance.
As a trusted laboratory partner, we offer you advanced plastic and rubber testing solutions along with the expertise of our qualified engineers. The static, dynamic and fatigue testing conducted at our laboratory ensures safe, reliable and efficient use of your polymeric materials and products in demanding end applications.
Testing of materials and products involves mechanical loading of a material specimen or product up to a pre-determined deformation level or up to the point where the sample fails. The material properties backed out from these tests are further used to characterize the materials and products. Testing is carried out under essentially two conditions viz; Static and Dynamic.
Physical testing of materials as per ASTM D412, ASTM D638, ASTM D624 etc., can be categorized as slow speed tests or static tests. The difference between a static test and dynamic test is not only simply based on the speed of the test but also on other test variables and parameters employed like forcing functions, displacement amplitudes, and strain cycles. The difference is also in the nature of the information we back out from the tests. Static mechanical testing is carried out at lower frequencies, generally less than one Hertz. The associated loads and applied deformation amplitudes are also smaller and the strain rate is much lower as compared to typical engineering applications. Dynamic loading is generally carried out under forcing functions and with high deformation amplitudes. These forcing functions and amplitudes are applied under a very short time period. When related to polymers, composites and elastomers, the information from a conventional test is usually related to quality control aspects of the materials or products, while from dynamic tests we back out data regarding the functional performance of the materials and products. ASTM D5992, D4092 and D5279 are some of the dynamic mechanical testing standards. High speed tensile, compression, impact, fracture tests using Split Hopkinson Pressure bars (SHPB), Servo-Hydraulic testing machines and cyclic fatigue tests fall under the category of dynamic testing.
Polymer materials are widely used in all kinds of engineering applications because of their superior performance in vibration isolation, impact resistance, rate dependency and time dependent properties. In some traditional applications they have consistently shown better performance combining with other materials like glass fibres etc., and are now replacing metals and ceramics in such applications. The investigations of polymer properties in vibration, shock, impact and other viscoelastic phenomena is now considered critical, and understanding of dynamic mechanical behaviour of polymers becomes necessary and compulsory.
Figure 1: Static and Dynamic Testing Systems at AdvanSES
The absolute values from frequency sweep, strain sweep, temperature sweep dynamic tests are meaningful, but have little utility as isolated data points. They do become valuable data points when compared to each other or some other known variables. A tan delta or damping coefficient value of 0.4 is poor for a natural rubber or EPDM based compound, but very good in FKM materials where the structure of the compound makes it venerable to lower than optimum dynamic properties. Most uncured rubbery compounds start on the viscous side, and as we cure the compound, we shift towards the elastic side.
The importance of dynamic testing comes from the fact that performance of elastomers and elastomeric products such as engine mounts, suspension bumpers, tire materials etc., cannot be fully predicted by using only traditional methods of static testing. Polymer and elastomer tests like hardness, tensile, compression-set, low temperature brittleness, tear resistance tests, ozone resistance etc., are all essentially quality control tests and do not help us understand the performance or the durability of the material under field service conditions. An elastomer is used in all major applications as a dynamic part being able to provide vibration isolation, sealing, shock resistance, and necessary damping because of its viscoelastic nature.
Figure 2: Viscoelastic and Dynamic Studies Correlate Molecular Structure to Manufacturing and Mechanical Properties of Engineering Components
As it stands today, the theory of dynamic properties can be applied judiciously to product development, performance characterization or failure analysis problems. The field of application has evolved over time with availability of highly sophisticated instruments. The problems need to be studied upfront for any time or frequency dependent loading conditions and boundary conditions acting on the components and the theory be suitably applied. Needless to say that dynamic properties have utmost importance when polymeric materials and components show heat generation, and fatigue related field failures. Dynamic characterization relates the molecular structure of the polymeric materials to the manufacturing processes and to the field performance of engineering products. Dynamic properties play an important part in comparing mechanical properties of different polymers for quality, performance prediction, failure analysis and new material qualification. Dynamic testing truly helps us to understand and predict these properties both at the material and component level.
Following are the testing modes that can be implemented and the results for materials and components that one may seek from dynamic testing;
Testing Modes
Test Results Data:
1) Storage or Elastic Modulus (E’) versus temperature, frequency, or % strain
2) Loss or Viscous Modulus (E”) versus temperature, frequency, or % strain
3) Damping Coefficient (Tan Delta) versus temperature, frequency, or % strain
4) Stress vs Strain properties at different strain rates.
5) Strain vs Number of Cycles for a material or component under load control fatigue.
6) Load or Stress vs Number of Cycles for a material or component under strain control fatigue.
7) Fatigue crack growth vs Number of Cycles for a material under strain controlled fatigue.
No single testing technique or methodology provides a complete picture of the material quality or component performance. It is always a combination of testing methods and techniques that have to be applied to obtain a 360 degree view of the material quality and performance.
References:
1) Ferry, Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers, Wiley, 1980.
2) Ward et al., Introduction to Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers, Wiley, 1993.
3) TA Instruments, Class Notes and Machine Manuals, 2006.
4) Lakes, Roderick., Viscoelastic Materials, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
5) Srinivas, K., and Pannikottu, A., Material Characterization and FEA of a Novel Compression Stress Relaxation Method to Evaluate Materials for Sealing Applications, 28th Annual Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Science Symposium, Ohio, March 2003.
Rubber and different types of polymer materials are widely used for a variety of applications, such as vibration isolation mounts, seals, o-rings and gaskets, shock mounts, and tires. The mechanical properties of these materials allow them to act as excellent dampers providing high compliance over a long fatigue life.
This course provides a brief overview of different types of rubber and polymer materials in the automotive and biomedical industries. The main focus of this short class is to teach the attendees to:
Introduction to Polymers and Rubber materials for Engineering Applications.
Non-linear Rubber Elasticity.
Hyperelastic Strain Energy Functions.
Mechanical Material Testing and Curve Fitting in FEA Softwares (Theory and Application).
Hands-on Workshop.
Questions and Answers Session.
This course is recommended for design engineers, FEA analysts, engineers working with new product development etc.
The endurance and durability testing of rubber polymer components is a functional fatigue test that helps to characterize and understand the in-service life performance of parts and components. Testing is Cyclic in nature and carried out as either in stress control testing (load mean level, load, stress amplitude)or under strain controlled testing (mean strain level, displacement, amplitude).
Using servo-hydraulic fatigue testing systems and digital test controllers capable of ultra-fast PID control, different controling modes are normally achieved. Typical criteria are:
1) Number of cycles at a specified strain or stress level 2) Amplitude or Position under specific load 3) Elastomeric parameters like stiffness, damping, etc., falling outside specified range
Parts and Component Testing at AdvanSES, Room and at Elevated Temperatures
Fatigue testing of the following elastomeric parameters can be studied over the components life under the endurance or durability test;
These calculations and results of these properties helps component designers to comeup with designs and material compounds that provide enhanced service life and durability.
Our laboratory has the capabilities to provide the following test requirements;
1) High cycle and Low Cycle Fatigue testing 2) Fatigue crack growth rate measurements 3) Fracture toughness testing 4) Tensile testing 5) Slow strain rate testing 6) Advanced material characterisation
AdvanSES announces that its Testing Laboratory has attained ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation vide NABL certificate No. TC-9168. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 is the highest recognized quality standard in the world for calibration and testing laboratories. Accreditation means the lab consistently produces precise and accurate test data and has implemented a rigorous quality management system. The stringent processes in the audits for the accreditation relate to the operations, efficiency and effectiveness of the laboratory. Test data from the laboratory is benchmarked for accuracy, reliability and consistency.
Receiving the accreditation means that test reports and certificates generated from AdvanSES laboratory can now be generally accepted from one country to another without further testing.
The scope of the accreditation covers tests and properties in the field of rubbers, plastics and composite materials. It is one of the few labs in the world accredited to perform internationally recognized fatigue standards like ASTM D7791.
AdvanSES today is one of the few companies in the world who provide expert problem solving services using Finite element analysis (FEA), provides new product development and material testing and analysis.
The sole purpose of an engineering laboratory is to provide engineering product development and problem solving services to industries by carrying out controlled condition experiments and engineering analysis. These controlled condition experiments are done using testing machines, computational mechanics tools and advanced engineering softwares. At AdvanSES we use state of the art testing equipments to conduct material testing on any kind of metals, polymers and composite materials. Our computational mechanics tools like Abaqus Finite element analysis software, our in-house machine shop aid us in this process.
Material Testing:
Testing methodologies are primarily divided into two (2) categories depending upon the test rate; static and dynamic. AdvanSES has both static and dynamic testing capabilities. We are able to provide a full 360 degree view of any material or product’s mechanical characteristics. We can also strength, strain, fatigue, hardness, and lots more.
Our testing methods include the following:
1. ASTM D638 – Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Plastic
2. ASTM D882 – Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Thin Plastic Sheeting
3. ASTM D412 – Standard Test Methods for Vulcanized Rubber and Thermoplastic Elastomers in Tension
Materials testing helps us to quantify, and understand whether a material or product is suitable to a certain application. Materials testing points us to limits of a material to handle a load or an operating condition. Materials that have not been tested and directly used in a product can be extremely dangerous. The data collected during testing and the final test results can be very useful to engineers, designers, manufacturing engineers and even the marketing department.
Mechanical properties could be determined for all types of materials that are found in aerospace, automotive and biomedical applications. The following mechanical tests could provide more information on the mechanical properties and characteristics of materials, • Ductility and Hardness • Stress and Strain • Elongation at break • Impact Resistance • Fracture Toughness • Fatigue under controlled stress or strain • Creep
Following are some of the reasons material testing is important:
Meeting requirements of regulatory agencies
Evaluating product designs, analyzing a field failure or optimizing a product
Selecting appropriate materials for end use applications
Verifying a production method or conditions
Apart from following a process or procedure to test a mateiral or a product, manufacturers can also make sure that their products conforms to some international test standards like IS, BIS, ISO, ASTM, DIN etc. This is one of the best ways to make sure that the material and product is worth in terms of quality. Regulatory agencies also require that products be tested as per standards before providing the go-ahead to market launch.
1) An Independent, design analysis and mechanical testing laboratory. 2) More than 2 decades of product testing and application expertise in mechanical, and materials engineering. 3) State of the art materials and mechanical testing laboratory with qualified engineers. 4) Innovative design, analysis and testing solutions for a wide range of industries
