Materials Testing Machine: Design, Fabrication, and Assembly of a Benchtop Universal Materials Tester

Understanding and documenting material properties are a critical aspect to the functioning of modern infrastructure and society; and because of this inherent significance, material specimen testers have become an incredibly lucrative and high-cost industry. Producing results of a professional or basic tensile, compressive, or bending test of material specimen presently requires the purchase of expensive equipment and machinery. This project being completed by undergraduate mechanical engineering students aims to design, prototype, fabricate, and assemble simple and scholarly universal testing machines at an affordable price tag under $500 per machine. The machine is a hands-on, crank-operated mechanism, designed for average student operation to test a wide variety of metals and polymers. Such a project conveys the importance of material science and material properties through the creation of an interactive tool that anyone can use in order to produce high-quality results in academic, classroom, and benchtop environments.