2026 Technology Trends Affecting Automation in Materials Testing

Automation, long a fixture of the production floor, has made its way into the materials testing environment across virtually all manufacturing sectors, from automotive and aerospace to medical devices and advanced polymers.

Materials testing equipment is no longer just a set of passive machines. Instead, the testing landscape is transforming into one where intelligent, integrated systems not only manage the testing process, but form a network that influences manufacturing operations and production efficiencies in near real time.

In addition to verifying materials’ performance and ensuring safety specifications, automated testing provides new means for innovative materials research as well as optimum production environments. The impact reaches well beyond simple data analysis and efficiency gains. Automation is the fundamental step for teeing up a materials testing environment to embrace an AI-enabled ecosystem. (Figure 1)

Digital Technologies Trends

In today’s manufacturing environments, you’d be hard pressed to find a company without a plan that includes some degree of AI implementation. Although materials testing has traditionally sat a bit apart from the manufacturing environment, today’s digitally-based equipment and advanced data sets are quickly becoming a streamlined part of facility operations.

But technology adoption should happen at the rate that makes sense for your test environment. A great place to start is to take stock of the available technologies and existing processes and see where you can make immediate improvements in your process versus planning for some more long-term investments.

Here we examine some trending technology shifts fueling automation adoption throughout materials testing:

Closed-loop control. Not new, but expanding, closed loop control allows for continuous monitoring and real-time load adjustment. Systems using digital technologies can respond dynamically to how a material truly behaves rather than simply applying force at a fixed rate, for example. A recent implementation is the loadcell-based MP1500 that eliminates the need for a deadweight system in melt flow indexing and incorporates a closed-loop control system. (Figure 2)

Extensometry. Contactless extensometry is making strides. One example is the UVX3D that not only removes the awkward useability issues of traditional units but offers elevated or enhanced technical performance that supersedes single-camera units. This extensometer captures a video stream and replays it with the digital strain data embedded for analysis and use, essentially allowing the user to replay the test.

A new class of extensometry is also emerging with the Vector, which serves as a cost-effective replacement for virtually any clip-on type of extensometer currently available. Its underlying AI-based technology has initiated a game-changing shift by turning the testing machine zone into a digital representation. Test events can easily be measured across large, small and even non-uniform specimens, with a simple, no-touch set up.

Integrated software. Highly sophisticated software platforms are not just observing what test machines are doing, but are helping to direct the process, serving as an extension of the test environment itself. The functionality goes far beyond simple data collection to include automation control, data management, and reporting capabilities that provide faster, deeper insights into material characteristics. These advanced software platforms are facilitating large-scale integration across system processes and providing easy access to more comprehensive and intuitive analysis.

Take the Horizon platform that exemplifies this forward-looking strategy to elevate the materials testing digital landscape. Instead of requiring a full system overall, the software is structured in modules that allow users to implement technology upgrades where and when it makes sense, and only for the test and results needed. This inherent flexibility is the cornerstone of an automated testing environment, as it enables labs and manufacturing facilities to keep pace with technology advancements without sacrificing standardization or operational efficiency. (Figure 3)

Multi-machine Systems. Some may consider this more of an outcropping of software technology advancements, but systems that run multiple machines simultaneously are being built, needing just one operator to oversee what used to be several, disparate test stations. As digital tools and technologies continue to fuse, a more networked infrastructure is becoming the norm, with a look towards multi-faceted test environments that are more integrated, optimized and cost-efficient.

Tinius Olsen offers a scalable, modular method of technology insertion that helps customers in their path to automation, on a timeline and within a budget that makes sense. This approach ensures that updates and investments keep pace with the test environment, whether it includes tensile, compression, flexural, impact, melt flow, hardness tests or another testing protocol.

Standards Still Reign as Technology Advances

Whether the goal is to determine the tensile strength of a structural alloy, characterize the flexural behavior of a fiber-reinforced composite, or evaluate the melt flow properties of a new batch of resin, materials testing is not a trivial process. Every test is governed by strict international standards that specify not just what to measure, but exactly how.

ASTM, ISO and other governing standards organizations remain essential to ensure consistent, repeatable and comparable results across different test environments and regions. Automation serves to facilitate the process and optimize the data, but standards provide the framework for reliable, universally repeatable results. Any automated testing platform needs to stay aligned with industry protocols, so that the measurement ecosystem, which includes calibration methods, sample handling, data analysis, test environments, and more, still follows these critical standardized methods.

The State of Automated Materials Testing

Automation is not simply about speed. It is about optimization, efficiency and integration. What was once a largely passive, machine-based process is evolving into an intelligent, interconnected ecosystem that influences manufacturing operations in near real time. Taking stock of trends today will prepare you for the materials testing environment you want tomorrow.

To learn more about what else is happening in the automated materials testing environment, download The Many Roles of Automated Material Testing (AMT) in Manufacturing white paper.

Two Test Systems, One Software Platform

Technology innovations in materials testing aren’t just providing better data analytics, they are also providing improved testing efficiencies. In an industry predicated on long-standing industry standards that dictate the parameters of test results—including precision, repeatability and accuracy—we’re still finding ways and opportunities to improve testing efficiency across the industry and focus on improvements, where it makes sense.

Because the standards themselves don’t change much from year to year, we can seek other methods of process improvement. Digitizing test information using updated tools, like enhanced software packages, has allowed users to collect, manipulate, analyze, graph and store data in ways that previously were just not feasible. This ability to make testing data more actionable gives us deeper insights into our materials testing operations.

Streamlined Process Through Software Advancement

Prior to the use of intuitive software platforms, a computer system was typically needed for each testing set up. That also meant space was needed for each machine, test system, etc. Moving data analysis into a streamlined software process not only helps move our industry forward, but it’s also transforming how we can do things with better data insights and more efficient reporting, while enabling a smaller test system footprint on the testing floor. (Figure 1)

Fig. 1: Advancements in software platforms are providing a more holistic materials testing environment that both improves production and saves floor space within a facility.

Where space is at a premium, like in a lab where there is already quite a bit of existing infrastructure and the constant need to upgrade, with limited space to do so, materials testing software has completely changed how things are done. In the case of Horizon software from Tinius Olsen, there’s more than just space-saving benefits; it has the ability to manage both the test procedures and the automation, making data easily accessible, for everything ranging from R&D to charging and analysis functions of QC testing.

A Gamechanger On the Testing Floor

A recent application at a global polymer matrix composite manufacturer put Horizon’s capabilities to the test. An automated materials testing system using the software was built so that two independent automated tests – tensile (ASTM D638) and flexure (ASTM D790) – ran simultaneously on the same machine. The reduced scale of the system in footprint alone enabled a more efficient testing environment, and the physical assembly was complemented by enhanced digital data exchange across internal processes, which included a bar code led data flow, customized results, alerts and system status. (Figure 2)

Fig. 2: Running one software platform across multiple test environments can reduce the materials testing footprint needed, especially critical for upgrades in existing facilities.

Key to this testing set up is the robotic arm, which accesses the specimen rack and test frame for both machines, all running on a single Horizon software platform. Through just one automation cell, the two tests are performed, streamlining data, reducing latency and improving materials testing results.

Overall Operations Improved

Whether you’re controlling and gathering data from multiple melt indexers, hydraulic tensile testing machines, or electromechanical testing machines that are performing tensile, compression, flexural, tear, peel or other tests, Horizon can run all the tests and gather all the information in one place. In addition, the software features a recall function that enables you to add key data that is either not available or missed. All digital data is streamlined and easily accessible.

Once all data has been gathered, the software’s result editor and output editor can consolidate all data that has been generated into customizable reports, depending on what type of analysis you or your customers may need. Multiple graph types can be applied per test, like stress vs. strain, or load vs. time, and reports can be distributed across one PC, multiple PCs, or across a network for easy multi-team access, keeping everyone on the same page. (Figure 3)

Fig. 3: Intuitive software platforms, like Horizon from Tinius Olsen, enable streamlined data processing and more advanced results and analysis.

Confidence In Your Testing Methodology

If your testing regime follows a quality control analysis to a variety of international standards, be sure your software includes a built-in test method library built that enables you to select test methods that have been written in accordance with your applicable industry and international test standards.

The ability to customize the test setup using a standard as a template and a configurable database that facilitates sharing across several computers on a company’s network are also important aspects to consider, as this will allow the testing programs and testing data to be used by multiple systems.

As part of the software’s development process, Tinius Olsen took the best features of its existing software, including Test Navigator, QMat and EP600, added a host of report writing and data manipulation capabilities and created Horizon, now one of the most advanced software platforms for materials testing.

As we move forward as an industry, we should continue to develop the means to innovate the materials testing process by focusing not only on testing machines, but on the holistic process of our testing environments.