Tinius Olsen has introduced a single camera video extensometer. It delivers point-to-point real-time video processing capable of achieving and exceeding ASTM E83 Class B1 and ISO 9513 Class 0.5 with continuous measurement through tensile break or compressive rupture, performance leading competitors cannot match. The video extensometer’s camera (Model LESC) is available for low extension materials. The New Tinius Olsen video extensometry solutions include nearly every type of application for metals (including thin wire), elastomers, textiles, plastics, and composites. This includes use with temperature chambers (from -70°C to +600°C), chemical, radioactive, and other harsh environments, very small samples, high strain, cyclic testing, and component testing.

The LESC is supplied with a 25 mm FOV lens. It offers a better than 1/100,000th field of view. The algorithms in Tinius Olsen’s new system, through sub-pixel interpolation, deliver an extremely high accuracy of 0.5%. Other key features include inclusion of compact, cool lighting, automatic gauge search and find, a letterbox test specimen for memory conservation, multiple longitudinal and traverse gauge lengths, and portable options for use across multiple materials testing machines (including those made by other manufacturers).

Test specimens are very easy to prepare. Any visible marking can be used for pattern recognition. These can be natural patterning on the specimen surface, pen marks, blob markers, punched gauge marks, or a sprayed speckle pattern. The pattern recognition algorithms work on edge detection, so the more detailed the pattern, the more accurate the pattern recognition.