Old trees are learning new tricks with the advent of composite materials. A "green composite" made from biodegradable ...

Plastics compounders routinely perform mechanical tests as part of the product development cycle. Producers often turn to universal testing machines (UTMs) to pull, stretch, bend or compress test ...

Although plastics have only been used for around 100 years, they have become essential to everyday life. They are employed in almost every industry and application, including packaging, healthcare, ...

Cellulose is well known as the principal component of plants. It is also the most plentiful carbohydrate in the world, used as a raw material in textile and paper manufacturing since antiquity. In ...

The Video Gauge noncontact extensometer from Imetrum (Bristol, UK) reportedly is the only device of its kind to achieve the exacting requirements of ISO 527-1: 2012 ASTM D638 equivalent. The system, ...

When we think of tensile specimen grips, our first mental image is probably that of the wedge grips that apply uniform clamping forces to the ends of flat test specimens. These were discussed in ...

As composite materials are used more extensively in structural applications, some test methods that once were considered very specialized and, therefore, not widely used, have become more significant.

Some degree of compromise is almost always necessary in designing plastic parts. Arriving at the best compromise usually requires satisfying the mechanical, thermal, and electrical requirements of the ...