Pavetest targets China with new dynamic testing machine

Matest subsidiary Pavetest has launched the DTS-130, a 130kN servo-hydraulic dynamic testing system. The machine allows large asphalt specimens to be tested at temperatures down to -50oC and has been developed with the Chinese market in mind. “This size of machine has become pretty much the standard in China for historic reasons,” explained Pavetest managing director and founder Con Sinadinos. “I would estimate that 90% of this size of machine that are sold goes to China.” While the size of the machin
April 28, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
The new machine from Pavetest features a novel two-piece concept for the climactic chamber
282 Matest subsidiary 7955 Pavetest has launched the DTS-130, a 130kN servo-hydraulic dynamic testing system. The machine allows large asphalt specimens to be tested at temperatures down to -50oC and has been developed with the Chinese market in mind.

“This size of machine has become pretty much the standard in China for historic reasons,” explained Pavetest managing director and founder Con Sinadinos. “I would estimate that 90% of this size of machine that are sold goes to China.”

While the size of the machine is unnecessary for many tests, organisations in China prefer to buy a machine which is big enough to cover all eventualities, says Sindadinos.  Pavetest hopes that its machine will prove popular with universities, since many of the institutions who use this type of equipment have already invested in a machine and accessories.

The DTS-130 uses a two-piece concept for the climatic chamber which Pavetest adopted for its DTS-30 machine. The temperature control unit attaches to the test chamber using a magnetic seal and can be wheeled away when not required. According to Pavetest, the benefits of this approach are that servicing, replacing or upgrading the temperature control unit is easy and it can be removed without dismantling the machine or disrupting the testing program.

Though the DTS-130 is comparable in price to competitor machines, Sinadinos believes that it is the control and data acquisition system which gives the Pavetest machine the edge. The 16-channel control and data acquisition system and TestLab universal software provide sampling rates up to 192,000/sec, 20 bit (1/1,000,000) resolution over the entire transducer range and up to 64 times oversampling. This means that the number it records is the average of up to 64 samples, giving cleaner data.

Fellow Pavetest director Alan Feeley, former head of R&D at 3912 IPC Global, who has designed the control and data acquisition system and software, has also devised a system which allows users to tailor their own tests. The demand for this requirement has been increasing in recent years, according to Sinadinos, with equipment suppliers often having to rewrite software to meet a particular university or institution’s needs.

Pavetest provides ‘Method’ files for all the popular national and international test methods, so that the user can clone and/or change these to suit their personal requirements. In most Method files, the analysis is done in Excel, so the user can modify the analysis based on their individual needs.

The software also allows for users who are not test-savvy to be prompted, says Sinadinos. “At the other end of the scale, we have people who are not PC-savvy or familiar with software, perhaps someone towards the end of their career who has been brought into the lab. Our software includes the ability to write a wizard that takes users through the tasks and steps they need to perform.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • High efficiency concrete testing is possible with Controls
    March 7, 2018
    Higher accuracy and better repeatability are achievable in concrete testing using the new 250 kN UTM EmS unit from Controls, according to the firm. This advanced universal testing machine benefits from the latest electromechanical servoactuation technology.
    Read More
  • New methods for non-destructive concrete testing
    August 29, 2017
    How best is it possible to assess the state of concrete in a road pavement, bridge deck or tunnel wall? One of the most reliable ways is to take a core of concrete from the structure to analyse and test in the laboratory. One downside to this method is that doing the test creates weak points in the structure that must then be repaired. Another is that the frequency of such cores cannot be too great – so it is possible that some problem areas will be missed. New technologies from the world of geospatial eng
    Read More
  • Quantm is making Trimble one of the world’s leading BIM market challengers
    December 19, 2016
    When Trimble first launched its Quantm software system a decade or so ago, the company was making an important step into end-to-end BIM modelling. The rules of the game were changing fast. Adrian Greeman reports When survey and machine control equipment maker Trimble bought the Australian road planning software system Quantm in 2006 it might not have realised quite what it was leading to. A decade later, Quantm is helping to put Trimble among the big players in the BIM (building information modelling) en
    Read More
  • CONTROLS develops sophisticated soil testing solutions
    March 15, 2016
    Accurate evaluation of soil characteristics can be achieved using the new TRITECH package from Wykeham Farrance. The firm is the soil mechanics division of CONTROLS Group and its electro-mechanical TRITECH machines are said to be a suitable solution for advanced and research laboratories that want to perform high quality tests at high levels of productivity. Based on heavy duty triaxial load frames, with advanced electronics and high quality components, the frames are the top of the currently available rang
    Read More

Highlighted Content