The patent pending indentation yield strength test developed by Nanovea in my mind is the greatest development in mechanical testing since digital readouts.
The use of a cylindrical flat tip penetrator’s load per unit surface area, at increased speed, has been shown to correlate to the load per surface area at which material starts flowing when in tension. See the report for the correlation studies on a variety of materials and details of the calculation of Yield Strength.
The Nanovea technology can determine the Yield Strength in less than a minute and in an area as small as 5 microns.
This gives smaller companies a way to more afforably chaaracterize materials without the expense of outside lab services for sample prep and testing.
Two caveats:
- Because this test covers a very small area, it truly characterizes the base material itself, and not necessarily how it will behave in bulk form due to casting, forging, voids or other imperfections.
- For the same reason, test results from this technology may be slightly higher than those by traditional tensile test / extensometer readings.
But the inverse of these statements is probably more valid: the tensile test results will always be less than the materials actual or ideal Yield Strength because its larger scale includes a greater volume and selection of various internal imperfections and macro defects.
We see this new Nanovea Technology as an exciting development for our field that will give engineers, product developers, and manufacturing companies better tools they can use to characterize materials at scale of use.
We can also see this being used by some bright engineers to determine Yield Strength of coatings! and films being used in today’s latest solar and fuel cell technologies.
For more information contact Nanovea.