At Plastometrex, we continuously refine our CORSICA software based on real-world challenges faced by our users. The newest release, CORSICA 5, embodies this approach, integrating valuable customer insights to enhance testing capabilities and overcome industry challenges.
One such collaboration was with rms Company, a leader in additive manufacturing (AM) for medical implants, who helped refine critical testing workflows for Ti-6Al-4V parts. rms sought a solution that would unlock the fast results that PIP (Profilometry-basedIndentation Plastometry) is known for, while accommodating titanium’s sensitivity to strain rate effects. This partnership led to the development of a key new feature in CORSICA 5.
Identifying the Challenge: Avoiding the Time/Accuracy Trade-Off
The team at rms Company came to the Plastometrex Application Engineering team with a challenge – improving efficiency of their quality assurance processes for additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V medical devices while overcoming the material’s suspected sensitivity to strain rate.
“Plastometrex’s applications team wasn’t just responsive, they were genuinely invested in helping us solve this challenge.They worked alongside us to pinpoint the root causes and find the best way forward for our particular situation. Their level of expertise and willingness to collaborate made all the difference.”
After investigating the issue, our team confirmed rms’s suspicions: for additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V, time-dependent factors do indeed play a significant role in the subsequent mechanical property measurements. The Application Engineering team not only worked closely with rms to understand strain-rate effects, but also uncovered that creep was significant, even at room temperature. Such insights not only benefited rms but also led to a journal publication on plastic deformation behaviours in titanium alloys.
Armed with this new knowledge, our team recommended slowing down the PIP indent speed. This provided stable and accurate results but introduced a trade-off — slower indents meant slower testing, reducing one of the advantages that makes PIP so valuable in production workflows.
This led to the second part of the challenge: while slower indent speeds delivered the required accuracy ofTi-6Al-4V testing, testing throughput decreased, making PIP less practical for high-volume production environments. Rather than compromise speed for accuracy, a smarter solution was needed.
Transforming Insights into Software Solutions
Understanding that rms required accuracy and efficiency, our team developed a dwell test method, where indents are held at peak load for a short period of time that result in equivalent time-dependent behaviours. This approach preserved PIP’s rapid testing speed, while improving correlation with tensile test results, offering a best-of-both-worlds solution.
With CORSICA 5, this new dwell test method is now available to all CORSICA+ subscribers, providing a fast and robust testing process for strain rate-sensitive materials.
“One of the best things about working with Plastometrex is how their team listens to and implements user feedback. We had a specific challenge, and instead of offering a generic fix, they helped us develop a dwell test method that made a real difference to our testing process.”
This collaboration demonstrates the power of user-driven development. By working closely with rms Company, Plastometrex not only enabled quality assurance efficiency gains for a customer, and enhanced PIP’s capabilities, but also contributed to new materials science research.
More importantly, the CORSICA 5 update directly benefits all users working with strain rate-sensitive materials, providing a practical solution to a common industry challenge.
Want to see how CORSICA 5 can improve your testing workflow? Get in touch with our team today.
