Testing in 'testing times'

These are literally 'testing times' for all companies. The current economic situation does not help the business of equipment suppliers like us and commercial labs in the UAE. So, the only remedy to this situation is to diversify the range of products and services offered.

This is exactly what we did with one of our key customers - Material Lab Dubai which is part of the S. S. Lootah Group in the UAE. Material lab already have a 25KN Tinius Olsen that can test non-civil materials and applications, but they went a step further and established a Petroleum testing Lab with equipment supplied by out Petroleum testing division. The non-civil materials testing using Tinius Olsen is for the following applications:

1. Plastics - Tensile and Flexural testing to ASTM D638, ASTM D790, ASTM D882, ASTM D624, BS2782, BS903, ISO527, ISO2439, ISO 8627 and other industry specific standards.
2. Rubber - ASTM D412, ASTM D624, BS 903, ISO 34, ISO 37 and other industry
   specific standards.
3. Water-proofing membranes and PVC water-stops - BS 6319 Part 7, ASTM D 412, ASTM D 638, BS 2782 – Method 320E & F, and UEATC test method. Other standards include ASTM D1004, ASTM C836 and ASTM E154. See my separate post on testing water-proofing membranes here.
4. Geotextile testing to ASTM D4632, ASTM D4533, ASTM D4833, and ASTM D6241. See my separate post on Geo-textile testing here.
5. Mortar Briquette tensile to BS 6319: Part 7
6. Unconfined Compressive strength of Intact Rock cores and Soil to ASTM D2938 and ASTM D4543.

The Petroleum Testing equipment supplied by Sigma to Material Lab is from Koehler Instruments, USA, and has a variety of testing capabilities, some important parameters from these are listed below:

1. ASTMColor Comparator - ASTMD1500, FTM 791-102
2. Kinematic Viscosity - ASTM D445, D446, D2170, D2532
3. Reid Vapor Pressure - ASTM D323, D1267, DIN 51616
4. Saybolt Color - ASTM D156, DIN 51411
5. Saybolt Viscosity - ASTM D88, E102, D244
6. Copper Strip Corrosion - ASTMD130, FTM 791-5325
7. Foaming Characteristics - ASTM D892, DIN 51566, etc...
   

We have also supplied testing equipment from other manufacturers for Transformer Oil testing as follows:

1. Oxidation stability
2. Interfacial Tension (IFT) and (SFT)
3. Dielectric constant Tan delta and Resistivity Test
4. Oil Test Set

For more details please contact:

Amit Mitbawkar
Team Leader - Industrial Materials Testing
SIGMA ENTERPRISES LLC
Engineering Products Division
PO Box - 96241,
Dubai, UAE
Tel - +971 4 8851828
Fax - +971 4 8851628 Mobile - +971 50 4450907
Email – amit_mitbawkar@sep.ae
Website - www.sigma-epd.com

Testing materials lower than 100KN with Tinius Olsen

In economic times like these it is not easy for a commercial laboratory to sustain its business by focusing only on the civil sector.

To counter this specific problem with the postponement or cancellation of major projects in UAE, one of our customers - Geoscience testing laboratory in Dubai, made a smart investment in materials testing this month.

Geoscience already have a 1000KN tensile testing machine to test Steel rebars down to 100KN. They were lacking in the range from 0 to 100KN.

So they invested in a 100KN Screw-driven Tinius Olsen machine to test a variety of materials and comply with various international standards as below:

1. Plastics - Tensile and Flexural testing to ASTM D638, ASTM D790, ASTM D882, ASTM D624, BS2782, BS903, ISO527, ISO2439, ISO 8627 and other industry specific standards.
2. Rubber - ASTM D412, ASTM D624, BS 903, ISO 34, ISO 37 and other industry
   specific standards.
3. Water-proofing membranes and PVC water-stops - BS 6319 Part 7, ASTM D 412, ASTM D 638, BS 2782 – Method 320E & F, and UEATC test method. Other standards include ASTM D1004, ASTM C836 and ASTM E154. See my separate post on testing water-proofing membranes here.
4. Geotextile testing to ASTM D4632, ASTM D4533, ASTM D4833, and ASTM D6241. See my separate post on Geo-textile testing here.
5. Mortar Briquette tensile to BS 6319: Part 7
6. Unconfined Compressive strength of Intact Rock cores and Soil to ASTM D2938 and ASTM D4543.
7. The machine also has grips to do 3 point or 4 point bending tests on different materials, with a special displacement transducer to measure the Modulus of Elasticity.

These are some amongst the many materials and tests this machine can perform. Some of the other salient features of the machine include:

1. Highly accurate 100KN Servo Load frame with Class 0.5 (0.5% in ISO 7500 calibrations) Force accuracy from 2% to 100% of Load cell capacity.
2. Three load cells - 100, 10 and 2.5KN to cover the lowest ranges and softest materials
3. 500L - Laser Extensometer. This is a special non-contact type extensometer used to measure soft materials without touching them. This latest technology removes the extensometer alignment component from the uncertainty of measurement calculation, because the extensometer no longer needs to be mounted on the sample. As the extensometer is non-contact type the sample is not exposed to clamping forces from the extensometer jaws thereby preventing premature jaw breaks.
4. Special displacement for measuring Modulus of elasticity and bending moment during flexural tests. This is mounted vertically below the sample at the mid-point to calculate the bending moment precisely for any material.
   

The beauty of the configuration is - the lab only has to invest in the proper grips for new applications and the versatile 'Horizon' software does the rest.

For more details please contact:

Amit Mitbawkar
Team Leader - Industrial Materials Testing
SIGMA ENTERPRISES LLC
Engineering Products Division
PO Box - 96241,
Dubai, UAE
Tel - +971 4 8851828
Fax - +971 4 8851628 Mobile - +971 50 4450907
Email – amit_mitbawkar@sep.ae
Website - www.sigma-epd.com

Geo-textile testing with Tinius Olsen

Testing Geo-textiles is a complex science involving a number of factors including right choice of testing machines, the correct gripping mechanisms and proper testing procedures.

Recently, we at Sigma helped Mattex International, Dubai acquire and successfully fulfill their testing requirements. Mattex, a Saudi-based company, produces a variety of Geo-textile and carpet-backing materials.

Mattex invested in a 25KN Tinius Olsen machine with accessories to test the following standards:

1. Grab test to ASTM D4632
2. Trapezoidal tear strength test to ASTM D4533
3. Puncture resistance test to ASTM D4833
4. CBR test to ASTM D6241.

Some application photos and a sample report are shown. Click on each photo to enlarge it.

For more details please contact:
Amit Mitbawkar
Team Leader - Industrial Materials Testing
SIGMA ENTERPRISES LLC
Engineering Products Division
PO Box - 96241,
Dubai, UAE
Tel - +971 4 8851828
Fax - +971 4 8851628 Mobile - +971 50 4450907
Email – amit_mitbawkar@sep.ae
Website - www.sigma-epd.com