Element Materials Technology (Element) has invested in increasing its creep and stress rupture testing capabilities and capacity by designing and building its own smart test frames.
The creep and stress rupture test frames, unlike those available on the market, are programmable, allowing Element to perform a variety of tests and to make modifications or additions much more efficiently. The frames do not use dead weights so technicians are not required to load weights on to them in order to perform a test. Instead, force is applied at the push of a button, therefore minimizing risk and significantly reducing turnaround times for customers. They also have a decreased footprint to maximize each laboratory’s capacity, again resulting in faster speed of service, as well as reducing operating costs.
The smart frames can also be repurposed to meet customer demand in other areas, including tensile testing, ASTM E466 high cycle fatigue and ASTM E606 low cycle fatigue testing, and even further applications with continued platform development, to ensure testing can align with any shifts in customer requirements.
To date, Element has built 255 machines. They are located at the Group’s laboratories around the world, including Huntington Beach, California; Charlotte, North Carolina; Hitchin and Sheffield, UK; Plzen, Czech Republic; Shanghai, China; and Toulouse, France. The investment primarily support Element’s destructive testing capabilities in the aerospace sector, but can also be used to serve the transportation and oil & gas industries.
Rick Sluiters, EVP Aerospace at Element, said: “The market has been driving the need to acquire many more of these test frames, so we identified this as the perfect opportunity to develop our own machinery.
Our frames are specified to be more technologically advanced, which allows us to considerably increase our efficiency and capacity and therefore shorten lead times for our customers. We are now in a position to test in higher volumes and take on testing projects of a larger scale across the business, opening up our offering to meet evolving customer needs.
This is fantastic evidence of the engineering prowess of our people. It is their technical talent, ambition and commitment to excellence that sets us apart from the competition.”
Element has over 80 years’ experience in both commercial and military aerospace testing and dedicates more than 3,000 technicians, engineers and scientists to the sector. The company has 29 Nadcap-accredited laboratories with 46 Nadcap accreditations, and its customer approvals, technical expertise, and geographical footprint are unrivalled in the aerospace testing, inspection and certification industry.
About Element
Element is one of the world’s leading independent providers of materials and product qualification testing, inspection and certification services to the global Aerospace; Transportation & Industrials; Fire & Building Products; and Oil & Gas and Infrastructure sectors, where failure in service is simply not an option.
We exist to help our customers to make certain that the materials, products and systems that they make are safe, quality, compliant and ultimately fit for purpose, leveraging 200 years of testing experience and our global testing capabilities.
Media contacts:
Bora Trimcev, Communications Manager
T: +44 (0) 203 540 1820
E: bora.trimcev@element.com
Alie Simpson, Pagoda Public Relations
T: +44 (0) 131 556 0770
E: alie.simpson@pagodapr.com
“This is fantastic evidence of the engineering prowess of our people. It is their technical talent, ambition and commitment to excellence that sets us apart from the competition.”
Rick Sluiters
evp aerospace