Element Materials Technology

Any solid material can be tested for fatigue, but materials used in the aerospace, defense, automotive, manufacturing, and oil, gas, and chemical industries are held to rigorous standards of quality, for reliability and safety reasons. Element's fatigue testing labs help companies in these and other industries meet quality requirements and create safer, stronger, more successful parts and products.

Fatigue Testing Services

Element's experts are trained in the concepts, standards, and methods of fatigue testing, including:

• Mechanical fatigue
• Structural mechanics
• Strain gaging
• Multiaxial fatigue testing
• Stress corrosion cracking
• Low-cycle (LCF) and high-cycle fatigue (HCF) testing
• Life-prediction methodology
• Structural component life prediction methodology
• Low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue testing
• Thermo/mechanical fatigue testing
• Through zero (i.e., tensile/compression)
• Testing in environments (temperature or solution)
• Rotating beam fatigue testing

Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) testing

Low-cycle fatigue testing or LCF testing is a strain-controlled testing method. It describes the thermal and /or mechanical loading conditions which cause premature failure of materials at a lower number of cycles, usually below 1000 cycles. It is widely used in industry, particularly aerospace and aircraft manufacturing.

High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) testing

High-cycle fatigue or HCF is stress-controlled and requires more than 1000 cycles. The material undergoing fatigue testing is subject to lower loads, usually less than 2/3 of the yield stress.

Element has both high-cycle and low-cycle fatigue testing labs.

Stress analysis services

Stress analysis allows engineers to determine the stress in materials and structures subjected to static or dynamic forces or loads. A stress analysis is required for the study and design of structures, mechanical parts, and structural frames under prescribed or expected loads. Stress analysis may be applied as a design step to structures that do not yet exist. Element stress analysis and stress measurement capabilities include:

• Strain measurement and stress measurement
• Stress cracking and stress corrosion cracking
• Residual stress measurement
• Stress analysis and experimental stress analysis