Thermal insulation products are used extensively in the building and construction sector. This European standard dictates the procedure and equipment required to find the compressive properties of insulating materials, specifically when undergoing point loading on the material. These properties are important for discovering the ability of the material to withstand compressive forces, which can occur during installation or in their final application. The required results are compressive force and deflection at the critical point. A 3300 or 5900 dual column frame is recommended for testing.
The challenges of testing to this standard are:
- Performing a compression test according to the specifications of the standard
- Recording the required amount of data points to capture the critical point of the curve accurately
- Ensuring only axial loading is introduced to the specimen
Instron Solution:
- Performing the tests according to the specifications of the standard - Instron engineers have designed a custom compression fixture in order to adhere to the stringent geometric requirements of the compression platens as stated in EN 12430.
- Recording the required amount of data points - Instron's Bluehill® Universal testing software allows the user to adjust the data sampling rate of the software, up to 1 kHz, in order to capture the most data points. With the advanced perfomance option available on 5900 series frames, a data sampling rate of up to 2.5 kHz can be used.
- Ensuring axial loading - The top compression platen is spherically seated allowing it to maintain full contact with the specimen and ensure only axial loading is transmitted to the insulation material.
It is important to review EN 12430 in order to fully understand the test setup, procedure, and results requirements.