This week’s photo shows the solid cylinders used to perform compression strength tests in the FEECO lab.
Compression strength tests look at how an agglomerated material behaves under stress as a whole, as opposed to a single pellet. Lab technicians use a controlled product amount and a hydraulic press (pictured) to perform these tests.
The agglomerates rest in the bottom of the open-ended cylinder and a smaller, solid cylinder enters the larger one. The smaller cylinder crushes the agglomerates at a specified rate of pounds per square inch.
Compression strength tests are most frequently performed on kiln products, specifically on proppants. Proppants must undergo extreme amounts of pressure to hold open rock fissures, allowing natural gas or oil to flow out; if proper strength were not attained, proppants would crush under pressure, defeating their intended application. Thus compression strength tests are crucial during the product and process development stages, as they ensure proppants are able to withstand the required amount of pressure, and ultimately perform as intended.
For more information on compression strength tests, or additional tests performed in FEECO’s state-of-the-art lab, contact us today!