Purchase of a Specialised Mechanical Tester

Tender description

CellScale MicroTester G2 Lot 1: The Institute for Materials and Processes require a mechanical tester for polymeric and microstructured materials in situ with integrated imaging and image correlation. More specific requirements include small-scale samples (of the order 50 μm – 10 mm) of polymers, composites, soft materials, foams, gels, and fibrous materials, including individual fibres and microplates (used as fillers in composite materials). The instrument should be able to acquire force – distance curves (tensile, compression, shear geometries) with force resolution down to the microNewton (µN) level and distance resolution down to 0.1 μm. These need to be combined with a force capacity of ~0.5 N and grip separations in the range of 10 mm, which are unusually large for the small force and distance resolution required.