JCS Technology is  one of the few UK independent and accredited test facilities available in the UK.

Advanced Composites

Advanced composites are a relatively new engineering material. As a result, reliable databases of material properties are fairly rare. It is the ability to combine a variety of fibres in different orientations that give an almost unique product based range of properties. Testing specimens that are able to mimic the specific orientation can give valuable design and QC data.

The standard test methods used on metals cannot, in most cases, be used on composites. That is why specific standards have been developed for composite materials.

Measurement and gauging techniques, again originally developed for metals, must also be modified for use on composites.

 At JCS Technology we are able to offer a wide range of mechanical testing at temperatures from -196 deg C up to 1200 deg C 

It is important to note that the list below does not cover all the testing available at JCST but should give a feel for our capabilities.

Full composite

Tensile strength and modulus with poisson’s ratio if required

Compressive strength and modulus with poisson’s ratio if required

Flexural strength and modulus both 3 point and 4 point

Shear strength and modulus using short beam for ILSS and full specimen for in-plane

Impact properties and fracture toughness

Bolt bearing strength

Sandwich material, this can range from honeycomb through to high density foam attached to the skin

Climbing drum peel to give adhesion values of core to skin

Core Material

A full range of tests similar to full composite.Purpose made tooling is used for foam testing

Conditioning falls broadly into two areas

Ageing i.e. Hot wet exposure

The hot wet exposure is covered under Environmental testing

Pre test conditioning is conducted over a wide range of conditions

The most common is 23+/- 2 Deg C and 50+/-5%RH

The type of conditioning is very much material specific and is normally shown in the test specification

Principally required when preimpregnted fabrics or fibres are used.

Resin Content: Usually using solvent wash to remove resin and leave the fibre

Fibre Content: remaining when resin removed

Flow: The ability of the resin system to move just before it Gels so that it is able to wet out the fibres and to bond between layers of a laminate. Good QC tool for ageing resin systems

Volatiles: Determination of the lower boiling point solvents

Resin Gel time: The time the resin takes to reach a gel point

 Physical covers all the testing not shown in other sections

Fibre content ,fibre volume and void content

Using burn off:- This is used a lot with glass fibre /resin systems. The resin is burnt off and the fibre cooled and weighed.

Acid Digestion: Used a lot with carbon fibre systems. The resin is dissolved in boiling sulphuric acid and then oxidised. The remaining fibres are dried and weighed

Adapted Digestion : used for kevlar fibre and thermoplastic fibre systems such as dyneema(polyethylene fibre).

 Covers both wet chemical analysis and the use of Instrumentation

The instrumental methods can be use for:-

High performance liquid chromatography:- normally used as a QC tool to ensure correct formulation of the resin system. Can be used to identify the materials present.

Infra red spectrophotometer: used to give a chemical fingerprint of the resin

Gas Chromatography: generally used to identify the volatile materials in a resin system

 Environmental covers the following