Surgical tubing is used in a wide variety of applications, such as drains, feeding tubes, irrigation and surgical procedures, and therefore comes in many shapes and sizes. The mechanical performance of the material used is critical, as failure could seriously endanger a patient. Tensile tests are frequently performed in product development and quality control to evaluate properties of material strength and strain at break, as well as the strength of catheter fittings.
When testing components, such as the catheter fittings, simple mechanical
screw action grips can be used. However, when evaluating the material properties of the tubing itself,
pneumatic grips are often required to minimize slipping of the material and ensure breaks in the gauge area. In some cases, where more accurate measures of strain are required, an extensometer should be used. Because of the high elongation of the materials used to make these products, we recommend using a
long travel extensometer or a
video extensometer.