Materials Testing Laboratory

The School of Engineering Technology’s Materials Testing Laboratory provides and empowers students to learn in a hands-on environment with regards to materials testing and characterization.  Students in this laboratory students perform structured and project based laboratory activities related to ASTM and AFS materials testing standards using a variety of equipment detailed below.  Common materials testing includes hardness, tensile, compression, impact, and microstructure characterization tests.  Students are provided with heat treating and cooling equipment to perform testing related to various environmental conditions and heat treatments.  This allows for various treatments such as strain and case hardening, enabling students to physically determine how materials are affected. This laboratory’s equipment enables students to learn best practices to determine proper material usages in engineering design and industrial applications.

The laboratory serves:

• MET 143 (Materials and Processes I)
• MET 144 (Materials and Processes II)
• MET 346 (Advanced Materials in Manufacturing)
• MET 444 (Applied Metallurgy)

Available Lab Equipment:

• 4 LECO LR-310 Rockwell hardness testers
• 2 LECO LCB3100 Brinell hardness testers
• Kingscan optical microscope for Brinell hardness characterization
• 5 LECO PX300 grinder/polishers
• 1 LECO PX400 semi-automatic grinder/polisher
• 1 LECO MX300 mounting press
• 1 LECO VX4 inverted microscope
• 1 LECO MSX-255M linear sectioning machine
• 2 Lindberg/Blue BF51442C heat treating furnaces (1200*C)
• 1 Instron 34TM-50 universal testing system (50/20kN)
• 1 Tinius-Olsen IT-104 charpy impact tester
• 1 Jominy end quench testing apparatus
• 16 student computer workstations with software including:
  • MagmaSoft
  • Flow-3D
  • Various CAD packages
  • Pandat
  • Vericut