MECHANICAL TESTING
Mechanical Testing for Coating and Plating Films
Coatings and platings vary in their resistance to abrasion, cupping, and impact. Assured Testing Services possesses several unique forms of equipment which can provide meaningful data to determine how well coatings and platings withstand abrasion, cupping, and impact.
Our expertise in paints, coatings, and platings allows us to assist you with the interpretation of this data in a manner directly applicable to your project.
It is crucial to maintain proper coating and plating thickness for corrosion protection of the substrate. Assured Testing Services has the proper thickness testing equipment for your application, including XRF x-ray equipment for analyzing samples relative to predetermined material standards. The equipment also allows for visual determination of thickness of various individual layers of coating applied to your substrate.
Coating appearance is important to many products and visual observation is too subjective to maintain consistent quality. Assured Testing Services uses devices such as gloss meters to quantify these characteristics. These coating assessments are typical administered both before and after accelerated weathering testing in order to determine fading, loss of gloss, or other undesired changes in properties after exposure.
Good adhesion is an important characteristic of coatings and Assured Testing Services has several standard methods to determine adhesion quality. These tests can ensure that the pretreatment has been properly administered or they can serve as a checkpoint to troubleshoot coating failures. Pull-off adhesion shown at right.
Assured Testing Services can perform Hydrogen embrittlement testing per ASTM F519. The laboratory is able to supply the 1a.1 notched bars directly. These bars are provided to be plated and baked through the process and are sent back to Assured Testing Services for testing. Notched fracture strength is predetermined.
Assured Testing Services is capable of performing chemical resistance testing to substrates such as metal, paint, plating, glass, and plastics. Testing can be performed by spot application or immersion; thermal cycling can be added, as well. The laboratory is able to source most materials for resistance testing directly. Exposure durations range considerably depending on the end use application for your project.
