Plates

Compression fixtures should be selected to suit the contact area of the sample which is to be tested. They are typically available as round, square or rectangular plates with either a threaded connection or a quick change (that we refer to as 'QC') fixing. A variety of surface finishes and configurations are provided:

nickel plated compression plates have a coating, which helps to prevent rust
hardened and ground compression plates have a smooth, scratch-proof surface ideal for compression testing on samples such as tempered springs which could damage a standard compression plate
rubber-faced compression plates have a protective layer, which helps to prevent damage from metal-to-metal contact during a compression test
self-levelling compression plates are ideal for precise compression testing on a range of materials and finished products - self-levelling allows exact parallelism to be set between the upper and lower plates, ideal for those applications where it is critical to accurately measure the deformation of a sample
vented compression plates are ideal for top-load/crush testing of materials or products which contain air (e.g. empty PET bottles, foam, etc.) - it allows for release of air from within the container whilst it is being compressed thereby avoiding potential measurement errors caused by measuring the force to compress the internal air