Testing for Plastic

Plastics exhibit a wide range of material behavior that is non-linear in nature. Within the application range of most commercial products, the properties with vary with temperature, time, orientation and environmental conditioning such as humidity and chemical exposure. Tests are available to capture the viscosity, thermal properties and mechanical properties of these materials. Mechanical properties include tensile, compressive and shear stress-strain data over wide range or temperatures and strain rates (speeds), as well as orientations, visco-elastic properties in melt and solid states. Fatigue, creep and creep rupture experiments along with visco-elastic tests provide insights into the long term behavior of these materials. Thermal properties include conductivity, specific heat, crystallization and cure kinetics data.