The Universality of a Universal Testing Machine

摘要

They're as common as dandelions in the spring, and as universal as a Swiss army knife. Sometimes they gather dust, condemned to a dark corner, other times they're polished to a mirror finish from intensive everyday use. We're talking, of course, about universal testing machines (UTMs). Why universal? Historically, force testing machines were called tensile testers, because they were only capable of pull forces.