What is Compression Testing?
Compression test is performed on different materials to measure how the products or materials behaves when they are compressed, crushed, squashed or flattened to measure the fundamental parameters that help to measure the behavior of the specimens under some specific amount of load. These parameters include the limit of elasticity, for which the limit of the material must be approximately equal to the proportional limit, this is also known as the yield strength, compressive strength or the young’s modulus of the materials.
Compression Test is the major part of the design process at the time of [production which is performed in the testing laboratories for quality control. The test is carried out on various types of materials to:
• Examine the strength of components such as aeronautical control, switches, bellows, compression springs, package seals, keypads, PET containers, PVC pipes, solenoids and many more.
• The test method helps to measure the compressive properties of various materials such as foam, metal, plastics, PET and many more.
• It is also used to measure the performance of various products such as load displacement property of a tennis ball, expression force of a syringe.
Various Types of Compression Test
There are three major types of compression testing that are performed on different materials to test the yield strength or compression properties of the materials such as:
• Crush or Top-load Test
• Spring Compression Test
• Flexural or Bend Test
Advantages of Compression Test
Compression testing offers data that judge the safety and integrity of the materials, products, and various components and helps the manufacturers to ensure that their end products are best to fulfill the purpose of particular application and manufactured using the best quality of the material.
The test results that are gathered with the compression test are used in many ways like:
• To measure the quality of products of different batches
• To examine the consistency of manufacturing process
• Help in designing the products.
• To reduce the cost of the materials by achieving the targeted manufacturing goals.
• To ensure the compliance of the products with various national and international standards that is introduced to test the compression strength of the materials.
Applications of Compression Testing
Compression test is used to assure the quality of materials, components, and finished products in wide range of industries. Some of the widely used applications of Compression Test are mentioned below:
• Aerospace and Automotive Industry
• Cosmetics Industry
• Construction Industry
• Medical Device Industry
• Electrical and Electronic Industry
• Paper and Board Industry
• Packaging Industry
• Plastics, Rubber and Elastomers Industry
• Pharmaceutical Industry
• Safety, Health, Fitness and Leisure Industry
In Aerospace and Automotive Industry, compression test is performed to perform
• Tests on switches, pedals, and solenoids
• For testing of Springs that are used in Automotive Industry
Applications of compression test in Cosmetics Industry includes,
• Force testing of sprays and dispensing pumps.
• Break strength testing of lip balms, lipsticks, eye liners and lip liners.
• Compression strength of eye shadows and powder compacts.
• Testing the force that resists dispensing of creams and lotions from sachets and containers.
In Construction Industry, the test is performed for
• Measuring the flexural strength of insulation boards, construction sheet materials, and roofing panels
• Penetration tests on pipes and plasterboard
In Medical Device Industry, the compression test is performed on materials such as:
• Bend testing of needles
• Actuation force testing of pen injectors and metered dose inhalers.
• Sharpness, penetration and insertion force testing of scalpel blades and needles
Major Applications of compression testing in the Electrical and Electronic Industry are:
• Compression test on keypads and LCD screens
• Force testing of push buttons and switches
In Paper and Board Industry, compression test is performed to measure:
• The compressive strength of papers, cardboards, paperboards, fiberboards, multi-layered boards, single layered boards, etc.
In Packaging Industry, compression test is performed activities such as
• Maximum compression strength testing of cardboard packaging
• Top-load testing of the products such as:
o Cans
o Preforms and PET bottles
o Cardboard and plastic containers
In Plastics, Rubber and Elastomers Industry, compression test is done by performing,
• Bend testing to identify flexural properties of plastics, rubbers, and elastomers
In Pharmaceuticals Industry, compression test is performed for:
• Gel rupture testing
• Pressing Out force of blister packaging
• Compression test of capsules and tablets to examine various characteristics such as:
o Breaking
o Powdering
o Coating strength
o Hardness
o Crumbling
In Safety, Health, Fitness and Leisure Industry, compression test is performed to
• Assess the compressive strength of cricket ball, golf ball, and tennis ball
• Compression tests on car seat safety join
