MATERIALS | TESTING
Putting plastics to the test
Manufacturers of materials testing equipment continue to focus on making their systems easier to use and more
productive.Peter Mapleston reviews some of the latest developments
Property testing is a fundamental part of polymer and compound development. But it often requires considerable repetitive and tedious work on the part of equipment users, whether for tensile testing, thermal analysis, or for assessing rheologi- cal properties. Some of the latest examples of testing hardware go a considerable way towards simplifying test procedures, at the same time making the entire testing process more accurate, faster, and potentially less costly. “Automation has been proven successful in
increasing efficiency, consistency, quality, and reducing costs across a vast array of processes. The question that needs to be answered is how much automation improves results obtained from labora- tory testing.” That’s the thinking from testing equip- ment start-up LabsCubed, which last year launched a compact automated tensile tester, the CubeOne. The CubeOne integrates fully automated
hardware and cloud-based software. The user loads up to 12 tensile or tear samples into a tray, places the tray in the machine, then sets up the tests via a touch screen. Once the start button is pressed, the device automatically loads one sample at a time, tests it, removes and deposits the broken test piece, analyses the stress-strain data, and continues to the next sample.
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The first version of the CubeOne, which came onto the market last year, is designed for elasto- mers but a new version for testing plastics should debut before the end of Q1, circumstances permit- ting, says CEO Khaled Boqaileh. At the time of writing this article, the equipment was said to be in pre-production, with a number of examples in use at a few selected customers. LabsCubed is cur- rently taking pre-orders and carrying out compari- son testing on its working machines. Boqaileh expects the company to be in full production by Q4. Very different in appearance to a standard tensile testing machine, the current elastomer version of the CubeOne measures 1,300mm wide, 520mm high, and 420mm deep, with a touch screen control panel mounted on top and a small drawer for loading samples on the front. The plastics version of the CubeOne is similar but will feature a larger loading tray. It will work with ASTM and ISO stand- ard tensile samples and offer a maximum pulling force of 10kN. Boqaileh says a version of the CubeOne for carrying out flexural tests is in progress and should be ready around the end of the year. LabsCubed has carried out a study to quantify potential improvements and savings by comparing its CubeOne solution to conventional methods. “LabsCubed enables and expedites the creation of
Main image: Testing is a vital element in the development of polymer materials, requiring
equipment that is both accurate and simple to use
January 2021 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 25
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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