Epsilon Technology Corp. High Temperature Clip-On Gage Model 3641

Designed for fracture mechanics tests in environmental chambers where the entire gage must be exposed to the heat. These capacitive sensor based clip-on gages (or COD gages) may be used up to 540 °C (1000 °F) without any cooling. These gages are designed for testing at elevated temperatures, much higher than strain gage based clip-on designs. They can be used for several standardized fracture test methods, including ASTM E399 for fracture toughness or E1820 and E813 for JIC and R-curve determination. The Model 3641 uses a high temperature capacitive sensor and can operate without any cooling at the upper temperature limit of most environmental chambers used in materials testing. High temperature nickel alloy springs are used to create the force to hold the gage in place on the knife edge contacts. Stiff arms with a flexure design at the rear eliminates potential problems of high temperature creep experienced with other designs. The clip-on gages are supplied with the Model 3603 signal conditioning electronics. The gage and electronics are factory calibrated. The analog output voltage is typically calibrated for 0 to 10 VDC (other ranges are available on request). This can be used directly by data acquisition systems. It usually can be routed to a DC input channel on most test machine controllers as well.