Products | ElectroForce Mechanical Test Instruments | ElectroForce™ Apex 1 Instrument
ElectroForce™ Apex 1 Instrument
The TA Instruments ElectroForce Apex 1 Mechanical Testing Instrument empowers scientists, engineers, and technicians to assess mechanical properties efficiently and reliably through monotonic tests, fatigue studies, and other material characterization methods, all with minimal training required.
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Mechanical testing is a standard practice among top laboratories and manufacturers to support material selection, design decisions, component evaluation, and product performance validation. The ElectroForce Apex 1 Instrument is engineered to deliver precise results with ease and reliability.
Take Your Testing to New Heights
The ElectroForce Apex 1 Mechanical Testing Instrument enables customers across diverse industries to measure a wide range of mechanical properties easily and efficiently. Its enhanced stroke length and user-friendly design supports precise tensile, fatigue and DMA testing of high performance and lightweight polymers and composites.
- Versatility – increased motor stroke range (100mm) expands testing of more materials across diverse industries, offering greater insights from one instrument
- Dynamic performance – completes fatigue testing for complex materials up to 30% faster, resulting in faster product development and validation
- Streamlined workflow – automated controls and fewer process steps reduce operator errors and ensure precision, enabling safe and confident testing
Achieve Precision with Simplified Testing
ElectroForce Apex 1 Instrument features:
- Enhanced test setup and safety: Integrated motor brake, crosshead lock sensing, and setup mode reduces training and ensures sample and system protection.
- Dependable testing: Automated control system tuning and data acquisition enables confident characterization of materials, while minimizing the need to manage instrument operations.
- User-friendly features: SmartSwap™ Technology simplifies sensor and configuration, while the System Status Indicator provides quick visual feedback on instrument status.
- Exceptional accuracy: High-precision displacement sensor exceeds ASTM E2309 Class A standards with 1 nanometer resolution.
- Flexible testing: Available in 3 configurations (axial tabletop, axial floor standing, and axial torsional floor standing) and offers a broad range of accessories for real-world testing.
Ensure Product Performance and Durability
Material strength and durability testing is increasingly important for accelerating the development of products in demanding applications from airplanes to construction materials. Leading labs and manufacturers commonly use monotonic and fatigue testing to inform material selection and design, followed by component and product performance assessments.
Employing monotonic and fatigue testing on the ElectroForce Apex 1 Instrument early in development can reduce costs, by identifying and eliminating weaknesses in material selection and design, before the validation or post-launch phase.
| Mechanical Properties | Material Characteristic Measured |
| Elastic (Young’s) modulus | Stiffness |
| Yield strength | Maximum stress before permanently deforming |
| Ultimate strength | Maximum stress supported by material |
| Elongation at break | Length change at breaking point |
| Fatigue life | Durability under repeated loading |
| Creep compliance | Deformation over time at constant load |
| Stress relaxation | Decrease in stress over time |
| Fracture toughness | Amount of stress to fracture |
| Fatigue crack growth | Amount cracks grow under repeated loading |
| Storage and Loss Modulus | Measurement of materials elastic (storage) and viscous (loss) behavior |
| Damping (tan delta) | The material’s energy dissipation behavior |
| Lifetime prediction for creep and stress relaxation | Predict the creep and stress relaxation for long time spans (years) |
| Temperature dependence | The material’s change in mechanical properties with a change in temperature |
Broaden the Scope of Your Material Analysis
The ElectroForce Apex 1 linear motor technology enables versatile testing across a wide range of forces, frequencies, and displacements, from < 1Hz to > 100Hz and microns to 100mm.
Purpose-built for mechanical testing, its advanced design ensures precise execution of experiments, delivering faster results and accelerating development programs. The friction-free motor, combined with high accuracy displacement sensor technology, helps ensure accurate motion control, preserving even subtle material characteristics without distortion.
This innovative system empowers researchers to perform reliable and efficient testing with maximum precision.
Expedite Testing with Reduced Steps
The ElectroForce Apex 1 Instrument, powered by our next-generation TuneIQ technology, reduces or eliminates the need to carefully select and change control modes during setup and test execution.
Simply install your sample and start testing — no complex control mode adjustments required.
- Simplified test set-up process reduces operator training time and errors, increasing operator confidence
- Constant sample monitoring protects your sample and the instrument
- Sample break detection immediately stops the motor when a sample fracture is detected, preventing damage to the sample surface
Solve More Material Problems with DMA
Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) is a highly sensitive technique used to measure the time and temperature dependent behavior of materials. It is commonly applied to polymers, elastomers, and composite materials to evaluate how they respond to changes in temperature, as well as how they perform under both very short loading times (high‑frequency events such as impact) and very long durations, including long‑term creep over many years.
True DMA testing extends beyond simple calculations during fatigue testing. It requires specific built-in test methods, special instrument corrections and qualification, unique control software, and sophisticated analysis methods.
The ElectroForce Apex 1 offers a comprehensive DMA capability with multiple options for clamps, ovens, and force measurement, which enables testing of both soft and hard samples from -150 to 350 °C and 0.01 to 100 Hz (when properly equipped).
DMA measurements on Apex 1 enable the following measurements and insights plus more!
- Complex moduli (E*,G*)
- Storage and loss moduli (E’, E”, G’, G”)
- Damping properties (tan δ)
- Glass transition
- Secondary transitions
- Frequency effects
- Creep and recovery
- Stress relaxation
- Time-Temperature Superposition (TTS)
- Impact strength
- Composition of blends
- Phase separation (Polymer Blends, Copolymers…)
- Effects due to fillers
- Effects of additives
- Aging (physical or chemical)
- Mullins effect
Evaluate Samples in Real-Life Conditions
Accurate mechanical testing often needs to simulate real-life conditions to best measure material properties. ElectroForce Apex 1 Instrument accessories empower users to measure sample behavior under a wide variety of conditions and end-use environments.
Environmental
Ovens and baths simulate a wide temperature range, including conditions to simulate the human body for biomaterials and medical device research.
Clamps
Grips for tension, or tension and compression, are commonly used to simulate sample conditions, in addition to compression platens and bend fixtures.
Sensors
Optional sensors measure sample behavior under many conditions, including low force, submersible testing, and direct strain measurement.
Accelerate Operator Training and Proficiency
The ElectroForce Apex 1 Instrument helps minimize training needs with its intuitive operation and user-friendly design. Operators quickly build confidence thanks to features that expedite test processes and reduce the risk of errors.
- Guided test-specific workflows streamline inputs and reduce setup complexity.
- Automated data acquisition setup ensures reliable and accurate data recording.
- Next-generation TuneIQ automates control modes and reduces the tuning process.
- Test parameter traceability enables tracking from setup to the final TRIOS software data file.
- Integrated software and data analysis automatically displays the most relevant data, enabling insightful conclusions.
How the ElectroForce Apex 1 Supports Inkbit’s Innovation
Learn how leading material analysis technology is advancing innovation at InkBit, a 3D printing company, from Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder Javier Ramos. He shares how the new ElectroForce Apex 1 Mechanical Testing Instrument has helped them cut costs and run tests more efficiently.
Resources
- Product Video: ElectroForce Apex 1: The Next Generation in Advanced Mechanical Testing
- Product Demonstration: ElectroForce Apex 1: Mechanical Testing Instrument Product Demonstration
- Application Note: Flexural Fatigue Behavior of Woven Fiberglass Composites at Elevated Temperature
- Application Note: Tensile and Fatigue Properties of Additively Manufactured Polyamides
- Application Note: Mechanical Testing as a Methodology for Resin Selection
- Tech Tip: Performing Tensile and Fatigue Tests on the ElectroForce Apex 1
- Product Brief: ElectroForce™ Apex 1 Mechanical Testing Instrument
- Sample Data: ElectroForce™ Apex 1 Mechanical Testing Instrument
