A look inside our mechanical testing lab

This video gives a glimpse of mechanical testing in action.

We ran tests on hundreds of oak samples like these to support the conservation of Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory. The tests were designed to simulate the effects of weather and time, helping the team at the National Museum of the Royal Navy select the best performing sealant for the ship’s newly replaced timbers.

For this particular test, we kept samples in a freezer at minus 20 degrees, then conducted tensile testing in a cooled chamber to measure the force needed to pull them apart.

Find out more about our mechanical testing capabilities, and how we’ve been helping to keep HMS Victory shipshape.