Portable universal tensile testing machine for studying mechanical properties of superelastic biomaterials

Abstract A portable universal tensile testing machine for single and cyclic loading of superelastic biomaterials is presented. It’s an alternative to large-sized stationary universal testing machines. The machine is designed to obtain uniaxial cyclic tension stress-strain curves of materials with a low elastic modulus, including biological tissues. Its portability allows using it in various conditions: classrooms, production laboratories, and in the field. An interface has been developed to connect it to a computer. Computer output of experimental data allows recording and displaying load-displacement curves, setting the number of cycles, limits, and rate of cyclic deformation. Several examples of testing various biomaterials are presented. The functional advantage of the device is the wide tensile testing speed range of 0.01–10 mm s −1 and cyclic loading, which allow capturing viscoelastic and superelastic behavior of biomaterials.