ASTM International is a globally recognized standards organization with tens of thousands of members. These parties collaborate to combine science, engineering and sound judgment to improve material performance, manufacturing processes and industrial consistency. The organization publishes over 12,000 ASTM standards annually in a book exceeding 85 volumes.
Becoming familiar with the relevant particulars as a logistics professional allows you to select packages and other vessels that withstand shipping-related stresses. Thoughtful choices protect goods in transit, elevating customer satisfaction while reducing preventable losses. Standards adherence also reinforces safety, especially if you transport hazardous products.
ASTM testing methods vary depending on the chosen standard. Specialized machines help you create the desired conditions to verify the suitability of completed products or find design flaws in prototypes. What are the top testing machines for meeting ASTM standards?
1. Universal Testing Machines
Universal testing machines assess the strength, durability and flexibility of specimens. Because this equipment performs multiple examinations in one system, it assists clients in meeting ASTM tests such as ASTM D638 (plastic tensile strength), compression (ASTM D642) and shipping container hazard resistance (ASTM D4169-23).
A UTM applies controlled, precise, repeatable forces to samples. The equipment features a bottom crosshead base with an actuator or motor and vertical columns that maintain alignment and stability. The upper crosshead contains grips to hold specimens. Testers manipulate the crosshead speed to match the associated ASTM standard, and an electromechanical or hydraulic drive provides the forces.
All UTMs contain load cell sensors that convert mechanical force into a measured electrical signal displayed on the machine’s interface in real time. Some models include clip-on or contact-free extensometers that indicate elongation and strain during compression and tests. Those in the second category use lasers or video-tracking capabilities to verify the statistics without touching specimens.
- Thwing-Albert Instrument Co. specializes in built-to-order testing equipment for laboratories and quality control departments. This is an ideal solution for meeting your chosen ASTM standards that require universal testing machines and similar assets. It has provided high-quality, United States-built testing machines for over 125 years and offers the flexibility to meet routine and complex test regimens while equipping you for future growth.
- Barrus Materials Testing Systems sells premium, customizable universal testing machines to meet ASTM standards. Its equipment applies force levels from 20 newtons to 5,000 kilonewtons, making it applicable to your precise needs. Extensive service and support options ensure you have accessible, thorough knowledge to optimize your investment, whether learning to use the equipment or testing a new product.
2. Hardness Testing Machines
Clients use this equipment to perform Rockwell hardness standard tests according to ASTM E18-24. It determines the relevant physical characteristics of metallic materials to check their commercial shipping acceptability.
These machines press spheroconical or ball-shaped indenters into a material’s surface to evaluate their depth as the applied forces change. The results indicate penetration resistance by measuring impression depth.
Conversely, ASTM E10-18 relates to Brinell hardness testing, which measures the diameter of indentation caused by a tungsten carbide ball of a particular size. Shallower surface changes indicate harder materials. Logistics professionals can examine Brinell results to assess a material’s wear resistance, tensile strength and ductility.
- ZwickRoell accommodates clients’ requirements with an extensive portfolio of hardness testers. The brand’s employees combine more than 70 years of experience performing these examinations, giving you access to abundant expertise. Whether you want a standard manual machine or a fully automated model, this company’s selection includes the equipment to perform various hardness tests.
- Mitutoyo is another reputable supplier of hardness testing machines. It offers advanced techniques and equipment to achieve accuracy, stability and quality, along with the required reproducibility to ensure confidence in real-world results. Its equipment supports all major hardness measurement types, making it easy to verify that your products meet the relevant ASTM standards. The machines also take multipoint and average readings for comprehensiveness.
3. Packaging Testing Machines
Equipment to test packaging evaluates how well specimens withstand simulated conditions matching those they will likely encounter in transit. Whereas ASTM F2096 relates to gross leaks in pouches and heat-sealed packages, ASTM D6653 is for containers exposed to high altitude, including during low-pressure conditions on aircraft that could cause sealed goods to rupture.
Logistics professionals handling last-mile deliveries often run ASTM D7386 packaging tests, which show how well single-unit boxes withstand the uniform systems applied in distribution settings. Performance-based examinations require that the containers remain sealed throughout sequential tests. However, design teams may open the parcels after each one to identify shortcomings and their causes.
Packaging test machines vary depending on the performed assessments. Moisture meters detect whether liquids penetrate barrier materials, while impact drop towers use darts of various weights to find failure points at heights ranging from millimeters to meters.
- PackTest Machines Inc. is a leading packaging testing equipment manufacturer based in India with a worldwide client base. It offers a wide range of products and extensive knowledge about each option. Employees go beyond the sales process to teach you how to use the purchased assets, interpret the results and understand how they connect to overall quality aims.
- Presto Testing Instruments has numerous specialty packaging testing machines, including models that assess ink abrasion resistance and how fast paperboard absorbs liquid. Many options include digital screens, helping you verify the results and compare them across several test attempts. During its more than four decades in business, more than 11,000 worldwide clients have depended on this company for testing solutions.
4. Shaker Tables
Specialized electromagnetic shaker systems allow for conducting realistic tests in controlled environments according to ASTM D999-08(2015). This standard includes two repetitive shock tests suitable for parcels placed individually or stacked on truck beds. Additionally, the single container resonance test determines whether a box and its internal packaging tolerates transportation vibrations and resonant responses.
Alternatively, logistics professionals use the palletized load, unitized load or vertical stack resonance test to identify and study the effects of resonances within palletized or stacked containers. They can determine if they are strong enough to bear dynamic forces.
Random vibration tests subject containers to shaking forces of varied and simultaneous frequencies and amplitudes. Conversely, sinusoidal examinations target specific frequencies and amplitudes, allowing logistics professionals to quantify a package’s response at several resonant points. Additionally, the fixed-frequency resonance search method prevents transit-related stress and damage by pinpointing a structure’s critical resonance points.
- Safe Load Testing Technologies designs, manufactures and transports shaker tables and other machines for logistics testing to your site. It is an internationally recognized brand for packaging optimization and verification, providing equipment to protect your reputation and satisfy customers. The employees’ specialized knowledge allows them to customize solutions. Additionally, they can suggest upgrades for your existing shaker tables, provide consulting services or train your team.
- Universal Engineering Corp. is a globally recognized company with international import and export clients. It creates customized shaker tables according to your size and load requirements. Heavy-duty springs and a servo-controlled motor provide movements mimicking long-distance transport, giving dependable results aligned with users’ ASTM standards, goals and quality aims. You can also request preventive maintenance and calibration services to keep shaker tables in optimal condition.
5. Climate Chambers
The ASTM D4332 standard provides historically accepted or designated laboratory conditions when subjecting containers and components to environmental tests. It stipulates the exposure times required to produce meaningful and reproducible results.
Even when the standard does not duplicate field conditions, it simulates them closely enough to identify adverse effects on package structures and materials that may erode performance. Climate chambers allow testers to set specific temperatures and relative humidity levels to assess package longevity, durability and quality. Integrated data loggers capture information about test conditions and ensure they remain constant.
- Memmert climate chambers maintain consistent temperatures and humidity levels during tests for accurate and reproducible results. The equipment also features numerous safety features, along with tailored programming and documentation capabilities for customized tests. You can purchase energy-efficient, quiet and low-vibration models or options that heat and cool to show how materials withstand fluctuating environments. This company’s innovative designs meet current and future demands.
- Environtainer supports clients who want climate testing performed at specialized sites rather than their facilities. This company’s location has seven advanced climate chambers that simulate extreme temperatures. The business caters to pharmaceutical industry professionals wanting to verify that their chosen packaging will protect goods without spoilage or other events that risk lives and waste money.
6. Drop-Testing Machines
ASTM D4169-23 examines complete shipping systems to gauge their responses to anticipated hazards. Although testers usually examine actual cargo loads, they sometimes assess dummy contents.
Logistics professionals use drop-testing machines to simulate shocks associated with specific transportation methods, such as running longitudinal shock tests to mimic rail switching. Additionally, this standard assesses stacking-based stresses encountered in warehouses or on trucks. Machines can also simulate concentrated impacts or environmental hazards based on the likely risks.
Testing equipment subjects packaging and goods to drops, atmospheric pressure changes, compression from stacking and handling-related impacts. Similarly, the ASTM D6344-04(2017) standard assesses packages’ resilience to external forces causing concentrated impacts.
- Lansmont provides gold-standard shock- and drop-testing machines for accurate and repeatable results. This company supports your ASTM standards goals with models that allow specifying heights, the number of drops and the specimen orientation. Besides designing every solution to exceed these requirements, this business subjects them to stringent factory testing. It also offers worldwide service and support.
- A.B. Equipment Inc. has designed, manufactured and sold high-quality machines for performing drop and shock tests on packages of all sizes since 1933. As a wholly owned entity based in the United States, this company upholds its reputation with a focus on continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. More than 11,000 laboratories worldwide include this brand’s equipment.
7. Hydrostatic Pressure Test Units
Containers meeting the ASTM D8134-18 standard have passed examinations subjecting them to controlled pressure. These tests fill vessels such as storage tanks and gas cylinders with water and pressurize them to check for leaks. The results confirm that they can withstand environmental stresses, including corrosion.
They are essential for containers used for hazardous materials since failures may threaten public health. Transportation authorities mandate that vessels pass hydrostatic tests, indicating the tanks and fittings retain airtight seals under pressure when filled or emptied.
Type I hydrostatic tests are most relevant to logistics professionals because they occur during quality control processes at tank manufacturing facilities. They verify pressure integrity and welding seam performance. Type II examinations are for underground storage system components.
- Hydraulic Technology Inc. has manufactured hydrostatic testing equipment for the industrial, aerospace and military sectors for over three decades. Customize your solution by specifying the chamber size, pressure and other characteristics to simulate the expected conditions. Alternatively, select a quick-ship tester when working against tight deadlines. These offerings typically leave the factory within 24-72 hours after receipt of your order.
- Pneumatic and Hydraulic Co. sells standard and customized hydrostatic pressure testing systems and provides on-site installation and startup services to ensure you quickly experience a healthy return on investment. The models include various safety devices to ensure testers’ well-being, and their user-friendly operation supports working with multiple gases and liquids while testing your materials.
8. Tensile Testing Machines/Tensometers
Logistics professionals use tensometers to examine materials under strain. ASTM tensile tests place opposing forces on materials such as paper and plastic until they yield or sever. For example, ASTM D638 tests dumbbell-shaped specimens of plastics up to 14 millimeters thick, while ASTM D882 is for thinner materials, such as films. ASTM D828 applies to paper and paperboard, and ASTM D3039 concerns polymer matrix composites.
Tensile strength testing rates range from 1 to 500 millimeters per minute, with forces applied until failures occur. That can either mean the materials deform or break, depending on the criteria. Alternatively, tensile modulus examinations measure material stiffness, with elongation indicating ductility.
ASTM D3039 tests occur on universal tabletop or floor-based testing machines. The equipment includes grips that apply even pressure to samples with have tabbed sections to prevent damage during the examination. Additionally, testers use axial or biaxial extensometers by attaching them to specimens to measure axial and transverse strains. Clients may request that these attempts occur in temperature-controlled settings to simulate expected real-world conditions.
Although UTMs can perform tensile tests, some manufacturers offer specific equipment for these examinations.
- Uby Industrial Co. Ltd. is a Chinese-based manufacturer and supplier of custom tensometers and strain gauges. Its models examine materials, structural elements and mechanical parts, giving you a wide selection to meet particular needs. All equipment undergoes a rigorous quality control process to ensure high performance and excellent longevity regardless of application.
- Tinius Olsen invented the universal testing machine in 1880, and this namesake company has remained a leading manufacturer of tensile testing equipment. The versatile machines perform tests according to ASTM and other international standards, making them excellent additions to your quality control program. The company has numerous automated tensile testing models to accelerate workflows. Accompanying software simplifies testing and documentation for repeatable processes.
9. Compression Testing Machines
ASTM D642 concerns the compressive resistance of containers, unit loads and components. Fixed-head compression machines apply edge-to-edge and corner-to-corner pressure, while swivel-platen types reveal corrugated boxes’ weakest points.
Packaging professionals use these tests to compare container characteristics or verify that a particular design meets the standard. Load-deformation recorders show compression-related changes over time due to increased strain.
- Haida International Equipment Co. offers numerous compression testing machines, along with other specialized examination equipment for packaging, materials and other specimens. Its models suit paper and corrugated box tests, making them ideal for logistics professionals wanting to assess common shipping containers. Besides its 15 Chinese branch offices, this entity operates over 20 after-sales service sites on several continents.
- Techlab Systems has over four decades of experience testing materials and raw goods while developing equipment for accurate results. Although the company manufactures products for its two brand lines, it distributes 12 other international names, giving it an extensive footprint in this sector. Clients in more than 85 countries depend on this business to meet precise testing requirements that include and span beyond compression tests.
Which Companies Offer the Top Testing Machines for Meeting ASTM Standards?
ASTM testing methods align with thousands of associated standards. Choosing the equipment and providers most relevant to your requirements improves quality control metrics. It also facilitates more productive discussions with professionals offering customized builds and on-site examinations. Regardless of your logistics industry role, proactive tests verify material suitability and indicate reliability in demanding real-world conditions.
