The test laboratory has a key role for FIP MEC. Its activities cover experimental testing for Research and Development purposes as well as Factory Control Testing of finished products.
Expertise gained in more than 40 years of testing activities as well as the available facility equipment lead us to extend these services to external clients.
The Laboratory occupies 1400 square meters inside FIP’s workshop facilities. Over the last years, it has undergone continuous upgrading and expansion allowing us to satisfy the ever more demanding requirements put forward by the structural engineering market, while always guaranteeing excellent service levels.
FIP MEC Laboratory can perform both static and dynamic testing on materials and full-scale devices. In particular, it is presently equipped with different test rigs capable of performing:
- Static load tests on bearings and seismic isolators with applied loads up to 80000 kN vertically, 7500 kN transversally and 2000 kN longitudinally (associated to a ±420mm displacement);
- Dynamic tests on seismic devices, such as elastomeric isolators and Curved Surface Sliders (pendulum isolators), for applied vertical dynamic loads up to 20000 kN and horizontal dynamic loads up to 3000 kN (±500mm maximum lateral displacement and 1600mm/s maximum velocity);
- Static and dynamic tests of seismic devices, such as viscous dampers and shock transmission units, up to a maximum horizontal load of 11500 kN, a maximum stroke of +/-300mm and a maximum velocity of about 1000mm/s.
- Static and Dynamic (fatigue) tests of expansion joints;
- Static and dynamic (wear) tests of sliding materials;
- Other Proof Tests on materials and devices of minor dimensions.
State-of-the-art test laboratory
FIP MEC Laboratory is checked and approved by third parties (e.g. Bureau Veritas, Polytechnic University of Milan-Italy and University of Padua-Italy) as a test laboratory capable to perform tests on structural bridge bearings and seismic devices according to different internationally recognized standards (such as AASHTO code, EN 15129, EN1337-3, etc.), national standards (such as the Chilean code NCh2745:2013) and specific railways codes (such as RFI Italian Railway Authority - Testing Instructions).For further information, please contact laboratorio@fipmec.it
