Mechanical Testing of Rubber

A range of mechanical test equipment is available for materials and component characterisation. Tests include:

Hardness
Tear strength, tensile strength
Stress strain properties in tension, shear, compression and equi-biaxial tension (basis for hyperelastic model definition for finite element analysis)
Creep & stress relaxation (fixed and variable temperature)
Fatigue (strain-life and fatigue crack growth)
Chemical ageing (compression set, tensile modulus changes etc)
Dynamic properties (stiffness and damping as a function of amplitude, frequency and temperature)
Explosive decompression (ED) resistance

Thermal analysis of Rubber

A Perkin Elmer Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) is used to derive the glass transition temperature of rubber (Tg) and to determine other thermal transitions such as curing exotherms.