R-TECH Materials were requested to conduct a push test on the back plate of a sensor housing for the aerospace industry. The specification for the application of load from the client was very precise as follows:

Compression using a rod of specified diameter
Load to 800N at a specified rate
Maintain load for a pre-set time
Unload and inspect for evidence of cracking or damage
R-TECH Materials constructed a test rig to enable the test to be performed on our 10kN capacity Zwick universal test machine (see Figure 1). Displacement was measured using the machine’s high-accuracy cross-head displacement transducer.

Figure 1: Test set up

A programme was set up using the Zwick TestExpert software to load the sample at the specified rates, ensuring that this was performed at a precisely controlled, reproducible manner. Figures 2 and 3 show the load-displacement traces obtained.

Figure 2: Example of Force and Displacement vs Time

Figure 3: Example of Force vs Displacement