Product & Material Testing

At Rubber Consultants, we provide a comprehensive range of mechanical testing services in compliance with International, European, and National rubber standards.

Our testing facilities are equipped to evaluate the physical properties of rubber and elastomeric materials, allowing us to predict their performance in real-world product applications.

Test facilities

• Universal Testing Machines — advanced video extensometer-equipped systems for tensile strength, elongation at break, and programmable complex cycles.
• Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA) — visco-elastic properties (modulus, damping tan δ) under controlled strain, temperature, and frequency.
• Hardness Test Equipment — IRHD and Durometer (Shore A and D).
• Rapid Plastimeter — rapid plasticity and plasticity retention index of raw natural rubber.
• Resilience — Dunlop tripsometer and Lupke pendulum methods.
• Abrasion — DIN and Akron methods.
• Fatigue — ring, tensile, or flex (De Mattia).
• Ozone Test Chamber — ozone resistance under static strain.

Specialised latex product testing

• Large-frame extensometer for pulling latex samples to their maximum extension.
• Condom test machines for ISO 4074 compliance (inflation and electrical leak testing).
• Latex glove testing to EN 455.

Standards we routinely test to

• Tensile properties — BS ISO 37
• Hardness — BS ISO 48
• Compression set — BS ISO 815-1
• Tear resistance — BS ISO 34-1 Method A, B, C
• Ozone resistance — BS ISO 1431-1 (static)
• Heat resistance / accelerated ageing — BS ISO 188

We also offer environmental chambers and an ozone room. Our specialist material test facilities cover thermal conductivity, friction over a wide range of normal stresses, crack-growth characteristics, and fatigue flaw size estimation.

We can provide expert advice on test selection, including characterising stress-strain behaviour for Finite Element Analysis simulation.