Wire Fatigue Tester Model FTX is a designed to characterize the fatigue life of small diameter wire using a rotating-beam test. The wire is subjected to a constant-magnitude, pure bending moment while it is rotated at a steady speed. This creates a fully reversed bending stress on the wire. The number of cycles is counted until a failure is detected and the machine stops. Throughout the test the specimen may be submerged in a temperature controlled water bath.

Machine control is executed by a high speed microcontroller and associated digital servo drive controllers. Both ends of the wire are driven by separate servomotors that are synchonized by a phase-locked-loop-type control method that prevents angular position errors, similar to mechanical gearing. The user interface displays the cycle count, test RPM, rotation direction, and the distance between the chucks. Test parameters are easily input using the intuitive menu-driven human interface

When testing wires, the stress depends on the wire diameter, wire material properties, the length of wire between the spindles, and the spacing of the spindles. (We can provide references for calculating test parameters.) Spindle spacing is motor-driven and can be set in seconds by entering the desired distance using the keypad. Unlike competitive machines, there are no belts to readjust when changing the spacing.