Plastometrex Ltd

Company description

Plastometrex develops a material testing procedure called Indentation Plastometry, and an accompanying software package, which aims to measure the stress-strain behaviour of a range of metals.

Plastometrex was set up to exploit the outcomes from several research projects carried out within the Gordon Laboratory over the past 10-15 years, including several with EPSRC funding. The idea being exploited is that of using iterative FEM simulation of the indentation process to obtain the stress-strain relationship of the material being tested. Since indentation testing is a much quicker and more convenient operation than conventional tensile testing, this is a very attractive prospect. In order to obtain bulk properties, however, the scale of the indentation must be greater than the maximum possible using "nanoindenters", so a new type of machine, combining a relatively high load capability with accurate measurement of load-displacement plots or residual indent profiles, needed to be designed and manufactured. Commercial sales of this facility, integrated with the necessary software, are now starting. The company has expanded considerably over the past 2 years and now has about 20 employees. About 20 Bench-top Indentation Plastometers have been sold worldwide and the scale of operation of the company is expanding rapidly.

Project impact

The company, which was established in 2018, but effectively started operations in 2019, has already made considerable progress and is starting to have a significant impact. Several industrial trials have been carried out and a number of companies have expressed strong interest. The first commercial sale has already been agreed, with delivery planned for May 2020, and it is anticipated that there will be several more later in the year. A number of papers have been published covering various aspects of the technology and a patent has been filed. The Plastometrex website is currently undergoing a major overhaul, expected to be complete by the end of April 2020. Partnerships are currently being set up with several firms. The number of employees is expected to rise above 10 this year. The company now interacts with about 50 industrial and University partners, almost half of which have already purchased testing machines from us. We also have an ongoing Innovate UK grant - aimed at developing a portable machine - and a Future Leadership Fellowship.