The Mechanical Testing labs within the Mines Shared Instrumentation Facility (SIF) include a variety of monotonic, fatigue, temperature, and strain measurement capabilities. These capabilities cover a wide range of load capacities and resolutions, displacement rates, loading configurations, and custom fixturing. Strain measurement capabilities are available for 1D, 2D, and 3D using extensometers and digital image correlation (DIC) across temperature ranges of -129 to 1200 °C
The DSI Gleeble 3500-GTC is a highly specialized system for research in welding and high temperature mechanical properties such as hot formability in metals. The system can be configured for tension/compression or torsion with load capacities of 45 kN and 50 Nm, displacement rates up to 1,000 mm/s and 25 rev/s, resistive heating rates up to 10,000 °C/s to 1750 °C, and surface cooling rates up to 10,000 °C though water or gas quenching.