Medical catheters are inserted into canals, vessels, passageways, or body cavities usually to inject or remove fluids from the body. Failure of these devices could result in severe patient injury. As a result, mechanical testing is used for quality control, research and development, and is required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance documents to demonstrate device safety.
Breaking strength of the tubing was the critical measurement of product quality. For this test, we used 1 kN pneumatic cord and yarn grips. These grips are highly effective at preventing slippage and reducing the clamping stress applied to the specimen, which will help ensure your test specimens fail within the gauge area, rather than at the jaw faces. We used our 3345 electromechanical system configured with a 100 N load cell and Bluehill® 3 Software for test control, data acquisition, and preparation of the test report. Our tests were run at 20 inches/minute for a total of 10 specimens.
In conclusion, this test configuration allowed us to report the most accurate results for breaking strength. In the case where strain at break is also required, we recommend using an extensometer, such as the long travel extensometer.