Materials Know How
MATERIALS: Impact Testing: The Problems With Single-Point Data
Knowledge of test conditions and graphical data showing the course of the impact event can help provide engineers and designers with the information they need to make informed choices about material toughness.
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MATERIALS: The Problems with Single-Point Data
In plastics, notched Izod and Charpy test results have been complicated by the way they are reported.
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MATERIALS: The Problems With Single-Point Data
Polymer properties are not constant as a function of temperature, and even small temperature changes can affect properties.
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MATERIALS: The Problems with Single-Point Data
Engineers who are used to working with metals are surprised that plastics cannot operate as close to their yield points as can metals. The yield point is not enough to tell you how the material reacts to stress.
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MATERIALS: The Problems with Single-Point Data
Properties are generally provided at a single temperature on a data sheet. But do those properties stay the same with changing temperatures? Of course not.
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MATERIALS: The Trouble with Data Sheets
Data sheets are routinely relied upon, yet the data they provide is limited in scope and can lead to incorrect conclusions.
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Materials: Analyzing Filler Content
The process is considered simple. But things aren’t always as they seem.
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MATERIALS: Analysis Gone Wrong: Part 2
But even misinterpreted tests can yield an approximation of the real composition of the material.
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MATERIALS: Analysis Gone Wrong
A lot of resources are devoted each year to trying to figure out why products fail. Sometimes it’s because no one involved in a project realizes the data provided was wrong.
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The Mystery Of Physical Aging, Part 3: Accelerated Aging Tests
Accelerated aging tests relied on by industries such as medical take into account only chemical aging—oxidation—and ignore physical aging.
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