Fasteners test lab goes live
Specialists at the laboratory seek to verify properties of engineering components as well as checking conformity and determining suitability of materials
Anixter Fasteners, which specialises in the sourcing and supply of fasteners and ‘C’ class components, has announced that its £450,000 independent testing laboratory in Gloucester is now fully commissioned.
Independently audited by UKAS and accredited to UKAS/ISO17025, the company’s ‘A-LAB’ facility offers a comprehensive range of fastener testing and failure investigation capabilities.
Commenting on the new laboratory, which cost over £450,000 to commission and establish, Richard Hawker, vice president of technical services, said:
“We support the largest OEMs, including a large proportion of the automotive industry. The fasteners and components that we supply are therefore often application critical, for example in chassis build or construction of braking assemblies. We take our responsibility to our customers very seriously and feel our duty to their customers just as keenly. The testing work done at A-LAB is therefore an essential part of how we deliver an exceptional standard of quality, consistency and reliability.”
The services offered at A-LAB fall under five headings; metallurgical, mechanical, chemical, failure investigation and product finish testing. The full list includes tensile strength, proof load, locking patch performance, torque tension, tortional/drive test, ferrite determination, hardness (surface and core) and micro-hardness, case depth analysis, grain size, elongation, decarburisation, coating/plating thickness, de-embrittlement, thread lap examination, particle size, porosity assessment, surface discontinuity, inclusion content, heat treated condition/structure, locking/sealing, coating thickness and failure analysis testing.
Conducting this array of tests requires extensive specialist equipment, including optical emission spectrometers, plus facilities to undertake specific tests such as salt spray testing.
Specialists at the laboratory seek to verify properties of engineering components as well as checking conformity and determining suitability of materials. Metallurgist, Lee Pugh explains: “At A-LAB in Gloucester we offer over 25 different tests to scrutinise the integrity of a huge array of components. We work to the most exacting standards of a broad range of industries, covering the specifications of BS, ISO, ASTM and Ford.”
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