After more than 60 years of service in the Galbraith Structural Testing Facility, the old Baldwin Universal Testing Machine has been decommissioned and dismantled.
It took crews four days to carefully chop up and remove the testing apparatus, which served countless Engineering students and professors since 1961.
This large-scale universal testing machine could apply tension and compression loads up to 5,400 kN (1.2 million lbs), on specimens up to 6.5 metres (22 ft.) high, and 18.3 metres (60 ft.) long.
It was removed to make way for bigger, better testing apparatus as major renovations will continue in the lab throughout 2022.
The centrepiece of the new development is the world’s first fully movable, adjustable, multidirectional, large-scale and large-capacity loading frame.
The new equipment will allow structural elements and structural systems to be tested under more realistic loading conditions. This will allow researchers to simulate the complex effects of extreme loading events, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes or tsunamis.
The adjustable, multi-dimensional loading module will be capable of applying up to a total of 2,000 tonnes of force in six translational and rotational directions for specimens of up to eight metres tall and 30 metres long.
Read more on the Structural Testing Facility renovations happening in 2022
By David Goldberg