Introduction to ASTM C1161 Advanced ceramics are widely used in applications where high stiffness, thermal stability, wear resistance, and chemical inertness are required. Unlike metals or polymers, however, ceramics exhibit little to no plastic deformation and fail in a brittle manner. Because of this behavior, traditional tensile testing is often impractical or unreliable for ceramic materials. Instead, flexural strength testing  has become the primary method for characteri

This article provides a detailed, standards-driven guide to gauge length selection for video extensometers, with practical examples from ASTM D638, ASTM D412, ASTM E8, and ASTM D3039.

A Universal Testing Machine (UTM) is a mechanical-testing instrument designed to apply controlled axial forces (and sometimes other modes of loading) to material specimens and then measure the specimen’s response (force, displacement, strain, deformation, failure) under well-defined conditions.