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Comprehensive Testing Capabilities
Metcut and CTL have signifciant experience with a range of support equipment and specialized personnel to customize solutions to meet your testing needs.
INSTRUMENTATION
CTL features a well-trained staff for strain gage applications. Our extensive experience is unmatched when it comes to applying gages on a variety of composite and metal specimens and structures.
TEST MACHINES
We can adapt calibrated temperature chambers to our testing equipment to provide thermal environments in the range of -320° F to 2800° F. We also maintain a full array of ovens and furnaces for temperature aging and thermal cycling tests.
GRIPS AND FIXTURES
A large assortment of grips and fixtures lets us conduct tests from -320° F to 2800° F. Our internal machine shop provides great flexibility in tailoring our fixtures and grips to the specific material, temperature and condition being tested.
HEAT SOURCES
Several types of ovens and furnaces allow us to test up to 2800° F. We have numerous small 3-zone resistive-element furnaces to use with our hydraulic wedge grips, hydraulic button-head grips, self-aligning grips, and compressive fixturing. These small furnaces feature heating rates in excess of 600° F per minute with a maximum temperature of 2800° F. They achieve temperature distribution of better than ± 1% of test temperature over the measured gage section of the specimen.
EXTENSOMETERS
Our laboratories also feature several room-temperature and high-temperature extensometers with gage lengths from 0.5 to 2.0 in. We can calibrate all to ASTM E-83, Class B-1, in strain ranges from 1% to 50%. Our high-temperature extensometers are compatible with our furnaces, which allows us to measure strain over their entire temperature range.
DIGITAL IMAGE CORRELATION (DIC)
Moving beyond strain gages and extensometers, digital image correlation allows full field strain measurements on any line of sight surfaces. With sub-pixel interpolation techniques of HD images, DIC is the equivalent of thosands of strain gages on your part or specimen.