Streamlined testing, saving time and money
By testing in-house with PIP, a leading additive manufacturing OEM saves over £100k annually on testing and material costs alone, compared with tensile testing.
Accurate mechanical testing in minutes
The PLX-Benchtop is a compact, easy to use system that enables you to extract much more data from your metal specimens than ever possible with tensile or hardness testing, delivering fast, reliable stress-strain curves from an automated indentation test.
Non-destructive
Measure stress-strain curves and metal strength parameters in minutes, non-destructively.
160x faster
Generate stress-strain results in as little as 5 minutes with minimal sample prep and streamlined testing — a fraction of what’s required by traditional tensile tests.
99% less material
Test directly on real components and samples, bypassing the need for costly tensile testing specimens.
Simplified testing
Optimise testing workflows with a straightforward, automated testing process and user-friendly interface, all from a compact and portable device.
How it works
A small indent (~1 mm wide and ~100-200 µm deep ) is created on the material’s surface.
The indent is then scanned by an integrated profilometer, which captures the shape of the material deformation.
Using advanced finite element modelling, the software runs a simulation of the same indentation test, continuously adjusting the material properties in the simulation until the simulated indent matches the real one.
Once matched, the user is presented with a stress-strain curve, which provides key mechanical properties including yield strength and ultimate tensile strength (UTS).
Higher confidence, more informed engineering decisions
Test the untestable
Unlock stress-strain curves from metallographic samples or specimens too small for tensile testing.
More data, less material
Extract multiple stress-strain curves from a single specimen with fine-scale spatial mapping across parts or welds.
Tensile testing one ASTM E8 specimen provides one stress-strain curve. The PLX-Benchtop could extract over 160.
The best of both worlds
With the PLX-Benchtop, you get all the benefits of tensile and hardness testing in one, with none of the limitations.
PIP Testing
Tensile Testing
Hardness Testing
Rapid testing
Rapid testing
Rapid testing
Rapid testing
Stress-strain data
Stress-strain data
Stress-strain data
Stress-strain data
Test small/complex geometries
Test small/complex geometries
Test small/complex geometries
Test small/complex geometries
Minimal sample preparation
Minimal sample preparation
Minimal sample preparation
Minimal sample preparation
See what our customers say
"Plastometrex’s unique technology platform enable us to assess, improve, and deploy additive parts far more efficiently than previously possible."
David Wragg
Senior Metallic Materials Engineer
at
Leonardo Helicopters UK
"The PLX-Benchtop allows us to characterise the properties of finely structured parts in an entirely new way. The data allows us to build up a more comprehensive picture of the properties of parts made via additive manufacturing, deepening our understanding of the process."
Tony Fry
Principal Scientist
at
National Physics Laboratory
"I’ve been very impressed with the operation of the machine and the ease by which it can be used."
Prof. Roger Reed FREng FIMMM
Professor of Materials and Solid Mechanics
at
Oxford University
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"The PLX-Benchtop has been widely used at IMDEA Materials Institute. It is an indispensable tool for characterizing novel materials, which may only be manufactured in small volumes using innovative processing techniques such as additive manufacturing."
Dr Ilchat Sabirov
Senior Researcher
at
IMDEA Materials Institute
“PIP has proved to be a great tool for helping us understand our processes.”
Jed Robinson-Wall
Materials Scientist
at
Renishaw
Interactive material data at your fingertips
1. Choose device, base metal, alloy, or processing method
2. Explore comparison data between PIP and tensile
3. Book a trial to see how PIP performs on your materials
Working in harmony with the Plastometrex technology suite
From the bespoke software that powers the PLX-Benchtop and provides a detailed analytics bank, to our expanding range of add-on modules that unlock new testing capabilities.
PLX-HotStage
The PLX-HotStage is an add-on module for our benchtop testing device that extracts metal stress-strain curves from indentation test data at temperatures of up-to 800 °C
CORSICA+
Explore software-driven performance improvements, expert application support, and a host of other benefits with our CORSICA+ subscription.
See the PLX-Benchtop in action
Join our team of application engineers to get a first-hand look at how PIP can enhance your data and streamline your materials testing workflow.
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