R-TECH Materials has established a new capability for the fatigue testing of pre-stressing strand according to the requirements of BS 5896:2012. The test method complies with the ISO testing standard BS ISO 15630-3. The requirements for fatigue testing of 7-wire pre-stressing strand were incorporated into the 2012 revision of BS 5896.

Using a servo-hydraulically controlled testing machine with digital control, and proprietary software, R-TECH can now conduct fatigue testing according to the BS 5896 requirements on all standard strand sizes up to 18mm in diameter. R-TECH has developed an innovative gripping method to ensure that failure occurs in the gauge length of the strand, and not in the area of the grips.