The UNIVERSAL TENSILE TESTER is used for determining the ability of the material to withstand forces that tend to pull it apart & to determine to what extent the material stretches before breaking.

Different type of plastic materials are often compared on the basis of TENSILE, FLEXURAL STRENGTH, ELONGATION, & TENSILE MODULUS DATA. Many plastics are very sensitive to the rate of straining and environmental conditions. The tensile property data are more useful in preferential selection of a particular type of plastic from a large group of plastic materials.

Tests for tensile strength (stress at fracture of the specimen) and elongation (extension of material under load of plastics. The first provides a measure of the breaking strength of the material but is radically affected by the rate of loading and the ambient temperatuere. Tensile strength in kgf/cm sq. = load (kgf) / a x b (cm sq.) Elongation % = (L2-L1) x 100/L1. Standard test methods : BS 2782 method 301, ASTM D 638, ISO R527.