The BRANZ Materials testing services are carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers with a range of skills and expertise in building materials and components. The Materials Section's capabilities include:
- Measurement of fundamental material properties, such as mechanical strength,
- Assessment of natural and artificial weathering performance,
- Lifetime prediction of materials and development of durability test methods,
- Assisting in the development of new systems.
Through its close association with the building industry and its knowledge of the requirements of the Building Codes and associated standards, BRANZ understands its customers needs and can provide cost effective solutions through the use of the Materials laboratories.
Expertise is available in such materials as:
- Plastics, polymers and composites
- Cement, concrete, aggregates
- Timber, wood-based materials, and their uses within a diverse range of building products, such as;
- Claddings
- Flooring
- Roof tiles and membranes
- Tiling
- Sealants and adhesives
- Coatings
- Building Wraps
The Materials Section can also perform a broad range of AS, NZS, ASTM and BS standard tests on a wide variety of building materials and components. These include artificial UV weathering of materials using a QSUN xenon arc weathering chamber (ASTM G155) and/or QUV fluorescent/condensation weathering apparatus (ASTM G154). Other artificial ageing methods can be developed to suit the material.
Accelerated ageing at controlled temperatures and humidities can be undertaken in various hot / cold / wet / dry cycles tailored for a variety of materials. A salt fog cabinet is also available for accelerated corrosion tests.
The Materials cement and concrete laboratory can perform over 60 tests to NZS, AS, ASTM, BS and ISO standards in the areas of concrete aggregate, cement and soils testing, including chloride diffusion testing, abrasion testing, resistance to chloride ion penetration, and pozzolanicity mortar testing.
Full details of the tests available can be obtained from the Materials group on request. Advice can be provided on testing procedures and test programmes can be developed for individual clients for specific product performance evaluation.
Facilities
In addition to strength testing, BRANZ can offer testing, consultancy and research services which require the use of the following specialised apparatus:
- QSUN xenon arc accelerated UV weathering chamber
- QUV fluorescent/condensation accelerated UV weathering apparatus
- Environmental chambers for various aspects of environmental testing, as well as accelerated durability aging studies, where the effects of temperature and humidity on materials and products can be evaluated.
- Confidential, monitored natural exposure site
- Salt spray corrosion
- Heat rain exposure facilities
- Freeze-thaw exposure
- Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectrometer for product analysis
- Optical microscopy
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