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by Robert Pires
Hill Engineering has been recently issued its second US patent for the DART™ measurement system. This updated device offers improved residual stress measurements within small-diameter pipe applications, allowing for more accurate analysis in both in-laboratory and non-laboratory settings.
Continue reading Hill Engineering’s DART issued second US patent! by Robert Pires
Our latest case study is up and it’s all about TrueSlot®, our innovative technique for measuring near-surface residual stress!
by Robert Pires
Hill Engineering is officially going global!
We are proud to announce we’ve been issued our first Japanese patent for the DART™, our Device for Automated Residual stress Testing.
Continue reading Hill Engineering issued first Japanese patent for the DART!TrueSlot® is an innovative technique for measuring near-surface residual stress that is more reliable than conventional techniques.
TrueSlot® is a residual stress measurement technique for generating a profile of residual stress versus depth from the material surface. The stress computation is similar to slitting but offers more sensitivity near the surface due to the proximity of the strain gage.
Additionally, TrueSlot® is globally less invasive than slitting because the volume of removed material is localized to the surface and does not typically extend through most of the specimen thickness.
The physical application of TrueSlot® is like hole drilling, however instead of a shallow hole being milled into the body of a specimen containing residual stress, the material removed is a shallow slot. The strain released with each incremental slot depth is measured near the slot using a strain gage.
TrueSlot® is useful for
TrueSlot® was found to have better repeatability when compared with conventional x-ray diffraction.
You can read about our repeatability study here.
TrueSlot® measurements are performed using our DARTTM system for automated residual stress measurement.
by Robert Pires
Our latest case study highlights ExpressRS®, our dedicated service to high-priority, accelerated schedule projects.
Continue reading New Case Study: Express RSAre you working on a project with a tight deadline? We’re here to help!
Hill Engineering offers expedited residual stress measurement services (ExpressRS®). With ExpressRS®, our customers can expect the same level of high-quality residual stress measurement results within an accelerated delivery time – typically less than 1 week for most jobs and next day service is available in select cases. When our customers choose ExpressRS®, their project is given priority in our measurement laboratory queue to help meet tighter deadlines without sacrificing quality.
Hill Engineering is a global leader in residual stress measurements. We believe every materials engineer, designer, and manager should have solid data upon which they can make sound decisions. Our broad range of best-in-class measurement capabilities ensures that we can tailor our approach to your specific project needs.
The following residual stress measurement techniques are available through ExpressRS®:
Hill Engineering has the expertise to address issues arising in materials, manufacturing, and design engineering, with unique capabilities in residual stress measurement, material testing, service life assessment, and mechanical design. Our laboratory maintains an active ISO 17025 accreditation.
ExpressRS® gives our customers access to this expertise with urgency. If you have any questions or are interested in utilizing our rapid-results service, please contact us for more information.
Strain gages are devices used to measure strain on the surface of an object. These strain measurements can be used to infer the amount of stress induced on the object, as is done with many types of residual stress measurements.
Additionally, strain gages can be used to measure things such as aircraft wing deflection, bridge cable creep, and tensile testing for material properties, making them an ideal tool for in-field measurements.
Strain gages come in many shapes and sizes and can measure strain in a single direction or in multiple directions, depending on the goal of the experiment. Strain gages can be used on a wide variety of materials under many conditions, such as in extreme temperatures or underwater.
Hill Engineering has extensive experience with strain gage application and can help design the experiment needed to reach your project’s goals. Strain gage application can be performed in our laboratory or at your site, to your specifications.
Strain gage application is useful for:
If you’re interested in how we apply a strain gage to a simple specimen, watch our video:
by Camille Fowler
Strain gages are a key component of many of the residual stress measurements that we perform at Hill Engineering. These small but mighty sensors can also be used for other experiments, and this is something that we highlight in our recent case study.
Continue reading Case Study: strain gaging services by Robert Pires
The heart of work at Hill Engineering has everything to do with residual stress. That’s why we thought it was about time we published a case study giving a general overview of what residual stress is, and why it is so important for designers and manufacturers to consider.
Continue reading New case study: Residual StressResidual stress is the stress present in a material in the absence of externally applied loading. These stresses can often form during manufacturing, and are typically an unintentional byproduct of a manufacturing process. Residual stresses can be caused by a number of factors, including plastic deformations, temperature cycles, or phase transformations.
Residual stresses can positively or negatively affect a product’s performance, which makes them a vital consideration for any critical design component. Often, structures are designed with considerable safety factors, in which case the effects of residual stress can be ignored, but as we push for higher performing structures that operate closer to the cutting-edge of technology, factors like residual stress can be the difference between successful performance and structural failure.
Positive values of residual stress are referred to as tensile, meaning the material is being pulled or stretched. Unintended tensile residual stresses can cause undesirable results, including cracking and failure. If tensile stresses induced by manufacturing processes are not taken into account, these can lead to premature failure.
Negative values of residual stress are referred to as compressive, meaning the material is being pushed together. These kinds of residual stresses can improve the performance of fatigue-critical components. Surface treatment processes like shot peening and laser shock peening intentionally introduce compressive stress in select locations at the material surface to make products perform better. For instance, introducing compressive residual stress can toughen brittle materials such as glass in smartphone screens or pre-stressed concrete used in city infrastructure.
Overall, the residual stress on any given plane in a material must be in equilibrium, but there can be local regions with tensile or compressive stress. Below is our Residual Stress 101 vlog, which highlights the information above.
Residual stress engineering involves the practice of manipulating residual stresses in order to maximize the usability and lifespan of manufactured components.
Through residual stress measurement techniques, Hill Engineering is capable of quantifying the internal stresses in a material, to better inform design decisions. We are the industry leader in Contour Method measurements and provide the same level of precision and accountability in a broad range of other residual stress measurement methods.
The methods we employ are as follows:
Hill Engineering is a trusted source for a wide range of measurement capabilities. For more information about residual stresses or any of the residual stress measurement techniques we employ at Hill Engineering, feel free to contact us.