NIST has restored its million-pound deadweight machine
MAY 23, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029846
NPR : In 1965 NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland, built a machine that uses a stack of stainless steel plates to apply up to 1 million pounds (4.4 million N) of force to test materials’ physical properties. It was then, and still is, the largest machine of its kind in the world. Over the past year-and-a-half, the machine underwent refurbishment for the first time. The weights, which accumulated damage over the years, were repaired, and the entire machine was taken apart and then put back together and recalibrated. Earlier this month the machine returned to operation and is working through a backlog of measurement requests.
© 2016 American Institute of Physics
