Cooper Union's Open Source Mechanical Tester

There have been many modifications to the open source mechanical tester over the past few years at The Cooper Union. The most recent one (seen below) was created by Dale Short and Calvin Ball.

Their research pinpoints a few areas where improvement is needed:

• SRL test- Test moves load cell out a given percent of sample’s thickness, then measures the decrease of the load (in %) over time
  • The Motor overshoots small steps (and does not retract if overshot)
  • The Motor takes long to reach large steps
• Creep test- Test Maintains load while sensor monitors position
  • Motor tends to bounce under large loads
• Dynamic- Test Applies different loads at various frequencies
  • Motor may fail to reach large amplitudes

For more information, you may visit their wiki page at: http://daleshort.cc/doku.php?id=pages:mechanicaltester