The United States of America As Represented by the United States

Eg&g Idaho, Inc.

The United States of America As Represented by the Department of Energy

Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company

Michael B Ward

Vance Albert Deason

Jonathan S Epstein

W Randolph Lloyd

Brent J Buescher, Jr

A bolt-loaded compact tension test specimen load apparatus includes: a) a body having first and second opposing longitudinal ends, the first end comprising an externally threaded portion sized to be threadedly received within the test specimen threaded opening; b) a longitudinal loading rod having first and second opposing longitudinal ends, the loading rod being slidably received in a longitudinal direction within the body internally through the externally threaded portion and slidably extending longitudinally outward of the body first longitudinal end; c) a force sensitive transducer slidably received within the body and positioned to engage relative to the loading rod second longitudinal end; and d) a loading bolt threadedly received relative to the body, the loading bolt having a bearing end surface and being positioned to bear against the transducer to forcibly sandwich the transducer between the loading bolt and loading rod. Also disclosed is a method of in situ determining applied force during crack propagation in a bolt-loaded compact tension test specimen.

Load apparatus and method for bolt-loaded compact tension test specimen

An interferometer in which a coherent beam of light is generated within a remote case and transmitted to a hand held unit tethered to said remote case, said hand held unit having optical elements for directing a pair of mutually coherent collimated laser beams at a diffraction grating. Data from the secondary or diffracted beams are then transmitted to a separate video and data acquisition system for recording and analysis for load induced deformation or for identification purposes. Means are also provided for shifting the phase of one incident beam relative to the other incident beam and being controlled from within said remote case.

Hand held phase-shifting diffraction moire interferometer

An self-aligning biaxial loading apparatus for use in testing the strength of specimens while maintaining a constant specimen centroid during the loading operation. The self-aligning biaxial loading apparatus consists of a load frame and two load assemblies for imparting two independent perpendicular forces upon a test specimen. The constant test specimen centroid is maintained by providing elements for linear motion of the load frame relative to a fixed crosshead, and by alignment and linear motion elements of one load assembly relative to the load frame.

Self-aligning biaxial load frame

A compact and portable diffraction grating maker comprised of a laser beam, optical and fiber optics devices coupling the beam to one or more evanescent beam splitters, and collimating lenses or mirrors directing the split beam at an appropriate photosensitive material. The collimating optics, the output ends of the fiber optic coupler and the photosensitive plate holder are all mounted on an articulated framework so that the angle of intersection of the beams can be altered at will without disturbing the spatial filter, collimation or beam quality, and assuring that the beams will always intersect at the position of the plate.

Fiber optic diffraction grating maker

A finely detailed defraction grating is applied to an object as an identifier or tag which is unambiguous, difficult to duplicate, or remove and transfer to another item, and can be read and compared with prior readings with relative ease. The exact pattern of the defraction grating is mapped by diffraction moire techniques and recorded for comparison with future readings of the same grating.

Diffraction gratings used as identifying markers

A compact and portable moire interferometer used to determine surface deformations of an object. The improved interferometer is comprised of a laser beam, optical and fiber optics devices coupling the beam to one or more evanescent wave splitters, and collimating lenses directing the split beam at one or more specimen gratings. Observation means including film and video cameras may be used to view and record the resultant fringe patterns.

Growing community of inventors

Idaho Falls, ID, United States of America

Michael B Ward