R-Tech Services are pleased to announce the commissioning of a new purpose-built 400kN electro-magnetic resonance fatigue machine. This is now the largest fatigue machine in the laboratory and gives us the ability for fatigue testing of 50mm reinforcing bars. We believe it to be the highest capacity electro-magnetic resonance fatigue machine available for commercial testing in the UK.

R-Tech Services now has fatigue capabilities for testing reinforcing bar from 6mm to 50mm diameters to BS 4449. This represents the full range of bar used in the UK construction industry and the machine will also be used for the testing of bridge wire, prestressing steel and strand.

Using our own in-house capability for the design and manufacture of test fixtures, this new high capacity fatigue equipment can be applied to testing of a wide range of materials and components.

The development of this machine was the latest collaboration between R-Tech Services and Si-Plan, a relationship that has now been in place for over a decade. Due to the mechanics of electro-magnetic resonance, the machine has also been recognised by the Carbon Trust as reducing the carbon footprint of the company by reducing the amount of testing required by other hydraulic fatigue machines in the laboratory. This machine operates on just 3% of the energy required by a hydraulic equivalent.