A tile and tile adhesives manufacturer was unhappy with the repeatability of the data generated from their existing manual Adhesion Test Fixture. The customer determined that each operator was applying a different amount of horizontal clamping pressure to the test sample, and this variable clamp pressures would consistently corrupt the test results. Not only would poor test data be expected under these circumstances, but ISO 13007-2 specifies that the sample be held in an upright position, not horizontally clamped.
This customer purchased a
5585H 250 KN testing system with an Automated Adhesion Test Fixture to replace the unreliable manual fixture. The customer and our Engineered Solutions Group worked together to develop the pneumatic fixture.
This new fixture activated a low-pressure horizontal cylinder to hold the sample in the test position - 4° from vertical as specified in ISO 13007-2. A much larger vertical clamp then pressed the sliding horizontal plates (dove-tailed) of the fixture together with a force great enough to hold the sample in the ISO specified position during the test.
An opertator utilized a control box mounted on the column cover of the 5585H to run the test. Well-labeled push buttons moved the horizontal and vertical cylinders. Logic was also built into the system to verify that the operator was always following the correct test sequence. In particular, satisfying ISO 13007-2 meant that pressure on the horizontal cyclinder had to be released before the beginning of any test.
With much less operator effort, the finished product was robust enough to gather reliable, consistent data from a wide range of specimen materials and thicknesses.