Wood is commonly employed as an engineering material in the construction and furniture industry. With its broad range of physical and mechanical properties, wood from different species of trees can be chosen to suit specific application requirements. The strength of wood is influenced by factors, such as the types of loading, direction and duration of loading, moisture content and temperature. Standards, such as ASTM D143, cover testing methods to determine the mechanical properties including
flexure strength,
tensile strength and
shear strength of wood. This allows engineers to compare the properties of various species before choosing one which best fits the engineering requirements.
Instron offer a number of tensile fixture which along with an Instron testing machine and Bluehill software help to determine strength parallel or perpendicular to the grain, cleavage strengths,Internal bond strengths and specific requirements like nail or screw withdrawal strength. Other standards Instron wood testing fixtures conform to include ASTM D1037, ASTM D1761, BS373, BS5669, JIS A5905, JIS A5906 and JIS A5908.