Topic: Tensile tester ?
Does anyone here have experience with or know a good link to a simple INEXPENSIVE shop built tensile tester that would be suitable for testing test blanks generated by a 3d printer ??
I have consulted the almighty GOOGLE with less than satisfactory results.
I have seen and downloaded the plans for the open source "Freeloader" but at a build price of about $4000 for materials not in my budget.
Some of the basic Mark 10 products would likely work but IIRC somewhere in the $ 1500 range.
Should not be that difficult to build some aluminum extrusion a pair of jaws to hold the material a stepper motor , gears and lead screw.
a load cell to sense force and a HF digital caliper to measure stretch before failure.
And possibly a Dataq DI-145 to handle the data acquisition.
http://www.dataq.com/products/di-145/
With the advent of 3d printers and 3d prosthetics IMHO it would be valuable to have access to material testing.
Tin
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