Welcome to our new Instron Community Blog hosted by Instron. It is a compilation of the freshest, brightest, most-talented minds that Instron has to offer. The world of materials science is so vast and encompasses the broadest range of industries, materials, and challenges that no one person can possibly possess all the knowledge required to be the resident expert – or master of materials science. It takes a small army behind the scenes collaborating and sharing technical know-how, experiences, and ideas to present the most accurate, relevant, and timely information to you – our readers.

We invite you to tell us who you are, share your stories and talk about your experiences. Join the Instron Community.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ah, Summer – The Ping of the Bat

Baseball: America's favorite pastime. With summer here at last, baseball fans everywhere are relaxing in their favorite ballparks listening to the crack of wooden bats on leather-bound balls... or perhaps the ping of the aluminum or composite bat.

Technology has enabled the sporting goods industry to design and manufacture ever better performing equipment. We now have high performance aluminum and composite baseball and softball bats. While these technological advances can improve a player’s performance, there is concern in many sports organizations on how this technology is affecting the sport overall. Testing facilities such as the Sports Science Laboratory of Washington State University are busy testing bats and balls for accreditation and certification purposes and for determining the performance of each new technological advance.

Until the 1970s, all bats were made of wood, and although solid wooden bats are still required for Major League Baseball, amateur baseball was introduced to aluminum bats to improve durability. More recently, composite bats have become popular. Most aluminum and composite bats have a hollow barrel that flexes on impact with the ball and then springs back, a phenomenon called the trampoline effect.

A simple way to explain the trampoline effect is to contrast the result of jumping up and down on a hard floor to that of jumping on a trampoline. On a trampoline, even with very little energy from your body, you still get a significant bounce because the trampoline is flexing with the impact and then springing back to its original shape, launching you higher into the air. In baseball, the result of this effect is that many aluminum and composite bats can hit the ball farther and faster than wooden bats, which can skew the game in favor of those using aluminum and composite bats.

In the late 1990s, test methods were developed to regulate bat performance. By 2000, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), an association that organizes the athletic programs of colleges and universities, and the National High School Federation (NHSF) had adopted bat performance standards based on the Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR). The BESR is the ratio of the difference in hit- ball speed and swing speed divided by the combined speeds of the bat and the ball before the hit.


Images courtesy of the Sports Science Laboratory of Washington State University

The NCAA now requires all non-wood bats to meet the Bat/Ball Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) standard, a much stricter standard than the BESR standard. Rather than measuring the speed of the ball after it is batted, BBCOR measures the trampoline effect between the bat and the ball. The new standard ensures that performances by non-wood bats are more comparable to those of wood bats. The main users of these standards are bat manufacturers who want to measure the performance of their products and test labs, such as the Sports Science Laboratory of Washington State University, that certify balls and bats for the various regulating associations and for the sports equipment manufacturers.

Further research carried out under the direction of the NCAA found that the performance of some composite bats improved over time. With time and use, the composite bats were shown to have a ball exit speed 5 mph faster than their original certification speed. The NCAA has developed an accelerated break-in test protocol (ABI). All composite bats must pass the ABI test protocol to be NCAA certified. The accelerated break-in procedure attempts to show how a composite bat will perform during its potential useful life in the field. This test procedure can be used with the NCAA, BESR, or BBCOR tests to quantify the effect that bat usage has on performance and can be used in the certification and compliance testing of composite barrel bats.

The baseball does not escape the close scrutiny of sports standards. When a bat hits a ball, the ball compresses by nearly a third at high pitch velocities. Ball compression is a measure of a ball’s hardness. ASTM standard F1888 measures the force required to displace a ball 0.25 inches in 15 seconds between flat platens. The ball is compressed twice, once along each axis of the two-piece cover. The compression value for a ball is calculated from the average of these two readings.

A further ASTM standard, F2845, Test Method for Measuring the Dynamic Stiffness (DS) and Cylindrical Coefficient of Restitution (CCOR) of Baseballs and Softballs measures the stiffness and elasticity of baseballs and softballs relative to cylindrical collisions. Dynamic stiffness is a measure of a ball’s hardness, which helps determine the distance an impacted ball travels; harder balls fly farther. The cylindrical coefficient of restitution, or bounciness, measures the rebound of the ball following its impact with a bat or another cylindrical object. Bouncier balls also fly further.

So the next time you visit a ball park, sitting in the sun with a beer and a hotdog, you probably won’t give a moment’s thought to the BESR, the BBCOR, or the ABI. But rest assured, athletic associations and sports equipment test labs are working hard to make sure that you have a great day.
Read more

Hang Loose? Not While Testing.

Are you using pneumatic grips? Be careful not to let the hose line just hang loose from your upper pneumatic grip. The hose can exert a pull on the grip, which is attached to the load cell, when the crosshead moves up during a test – and show up as erroneous load.

If you have an Instron 3300, 5500, or 5900 testing system, attach the hose to clips on the T-slot columns. Make sure there is enough play to ensure that it does not tug on the upper grip during a test. On older Instron test frames, you can attach the hose to the moving crosshead using duct tape.
Back view of systemFront view of system
Read more

Question from a Customer

Q. I’m testing colored plastic specimens, and I’m having trouble getting my video extensometer to consistently locate the specimen marks. Can you help?

A.This is probably due to the lower contrast between the specimen color and the mark color. Try a range of different colors for the marks to find the best contrast. We have found that a very effective solution for marking colored specimens is to use two marks, one inside the other. For example, make a large white mark with a small black mark, or vice versa. This helps the video extensometer to identify the marks more consistently.
Read more

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Who Really Produces the Best Toilet Paper?

Well, Consumer Reports has an answer. With the help of an Instron® testing device, Consumer Reports has tested the strength of toilet paper, including how hard one needs to tug to get toilet paper to rip along the perforation. Fifteen sheets of each brand in an Instron® shows that the tried and true philosophy of quality over quantity rings true. Watch the testing in action. Read more

Monday, May 14, 2012

Instron and the Institute of Polymeric Materials and Testing

At the Institute of Polymeric Materials and Testing (IPMT) at Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz, Austria, students now have access to three Instron electrodynamic testing systems to help them analyze the failure behaviors of polymers. Fracture mechanics testing of plastics is a major focus of the current research projects at the IPMT. The specific objective being the correlation between a relatively short-term, cyclic, alternating load applied in the laboratory and the durability of plastic applications under real life service conditions. Learn more about the testing being done at this facility and how the use of Instron systems help the students accomplish it. Read more

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Are All Peel Adhesion Strength Tests Alike?

A 180 degree peel adhesion test is routinely performed to provide strength information to engineers, chemists, and scientists for formulation, package design, material selection, and process parameter decisions. Moreover, results from this testing (maximum load and average peel force) are published in technical data sheets, and comparisons of the results are frequently performed to help determine the optimal adhesive for an application. However, one should use great caution when comparing these values without understanding the test instrument’s bandwidth and data acquisition settings. Find the whitepaper on instron.com to learn how Dan McClellan, Instron® Sales Engineer, examines the effect that variances in data collection rates and electronic bandwidths have on testing results. Read more

Friday, May 4, 2012

Capture Video Footage of Your Testing with Bluehill Software

YouTube has become home to our favorite videos and now, even our favorite materials testing demonstrations. We’ve found that customers are proudly showcasing their testing applications online. Parasar Kodati, Bluehill® Software Product Manager at Instron®, has recently posted a great tip on how to integrate videos into the test layout in Bluehill. Learn how... Read more

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Leading-edge Technologies for Materials and Components Testing Consolidated under one Roof

For the first time ever, Instron and four other members of Illinois Tool Works' (ITW) Test and Measurement Group will combine forces at Control 2012 in Stuttgart, Germany and jointly present their offerings under one roof. At Stand 1522 in Hall 1, visitors will find a host of valuable information for testing a wide spectrum of materials and components, from hard to soft and from ductile to brittle.

The companies will be presenting their product portfolios and newly developed products for static and dynamic tensile, compression and torsion testing (Instron), non-destructive X-ray testing and computed tomography (North Star Imaging, NSI), crack detection (ITW Tiede), hardness testing (Wilson Hardness), and specimen preparation (Buehler).

Instron will focus on its cost-saving 5900 EXTEND™ Retrofit Packages for upgrading legacy Instron testing systems. Retrofit packages enable customers to safeguard their original investment by utilizing state-of-the-art electronic control systems and testing software. Other instruments presented at Control include the all-electric dynamic testing instrument, Electropuls® E1000, and the 5969 dual column mechanical testing system.


NSI, based in Rogers, Minnesota, will make its European debut as a globally leading provider of X-ray systems and industrial Computed Tomography (CT) systems, both standard and application-specific, for the 3D monitoring of the interior structures of components made from a wide range of materials. At Control 2012, NSI will showcase the newly-developed X-View X25 -- a high-resolution CT which requires only limited space in the test lab and is primarily dedicated to checking the quality of small parts with submicron resolution for markets such as electronics, research, and medical device.

ITW Tiede is a global manufacturer and supplier of systems and accessories for surface crack detection on magnetizable and non-magnetizable components using the magnetic particle and penetration test methods. A new product in the area of magnetic particle testing, which will be launched at Control 2012, is the company's compact and therefore extremely versatile ISOTEST 30 E high-current power pack for magnetization of test specimens with alternating or full-wave direct current.



Wilson Hardness is one of the internationally leading manufacturers of systems for hardness testing to Rockwell, Knoop / Vickers and Brinell. The brand “Wilson Hardness” combines three renowned manufacturers – Reicherter, Wolpert and Wilson – each one representing a long tradition in manufacturing hardness testers. A highlight at Control 2012 will be the company's complex, yet easy-to-use automation systems for hardness measurement, which help users save time and money. A main point of interest will be the company's new, user-friendly and intuitive software to support increasingly complex testing challenges in production and test laboratories.

Buehler, a leading manufacturer for materials preparation and analysis equipment, will highlight its automated grinding and polishing systems Series EcoMet/AutoMet at  Control 2012. These powerful, stable and sturdy devices are conceived for applications involving high specimen throughput. The programmable 'Pro' model variants enable presetting of the required amount of material to be removed. An optional Burst System ensures flexible and cost-efficient metering of polishing suspensions and lubricants.


All five companies are housed under the Illinois Tool Works (ITW) umbrella. ITW, based in Glenview, Illinois, is a highly diversified and de-centrally organized industrial company with a staff of over 60,000 that operates 825 businesses located in 52 countries spanning the globe, and provides a wide spectrum of products for the international market. The major activities of the company are concentrated in the areas of Transport, Industrial Packaging, Power Systems & Electronics, Food Equipment, Construction Products, Polymers and Fluids, and Decorative Surface. A further group of businesses, including the materials testing systems and software manufacturers present at Control 2012, are part of IW's Test & Measurement Group.
Read more