µTS — Universal Test System for Use Under the Microscope

Direct-drive ball-screw actuators give the system an unusually wide speed range, spanning roughly seven orders of magnitude. That range comes in handy for fatigue testing, step-loaded creep work, stress-relaxation studies, and general fine-tuned load control.

 

Psylotech designs and builds its own high-resolution force transducers in-house, which lets the system handle a wider range of specimen sizes without needing to be re-aligned each time. Because each transducer is wire-EDM'd from a single block of metal, it offers strong bending stiffness together with very accurate alignment.

 

A wide selection of gripping hardware is available: shoulder-mount and clamp-style tension grips, compression platens, 3- and 4-point bend fixtures, and Arcan grips, plus a flat platform grip with an M3 bolt pattern. The notched T-slot lets grips be repositioned repeatably across all six degrees of freedom.

 

An optional X-stage keeps the region of interest centered under the microscope for the full duration of a test. Cross-head motion is software-programmable, so even a specimen undergoing bending can be kept within the field of view throughout.

 

On request, the system can be configured with torque measurement, temperature control (from -65°C up to 1,600°C), and a 4-axis high-resolution load cell. Actuators can also be tuned specifically for fatigue testing, and the LabVIEW control source code is available on request.