Have you heard of tensile strength? It’s commonly used to describe the strength of materials, fasteners, tools and other objects.
When shopping for industrial manufacturing products, you should pay attention to tensile strength. Tensile strength is arguably one of the most important specifications for industrial manufacturing products. Tensile strength, though, is more than just the general strength of a product. For a better understanding of what it means, keep reading.
What Is Tensile Strength?
Also known as ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength refers to the maximum amount of mechanical stress to which an object can be exposed without breaking. There’s no such thing as a breakproof object. All objects can be broken when exposed to enough mechanical stress. Tensile strength is a measurement of how much mechanical stress an object can withstand before breaking. Upon excessing this limit, objects will break.
The 3 Metrics for Tensile Strength
While tensile strength is a measurement of how much mechanical stress an object can withstand before breaking, there are three different metrics for it: yield strength, ultimate strength and breaking strength.
Yield strength is the least amount of mechanical stress to which an object can be exposed that causes a permanent deformation. The object may not necessarily crack. Rather, it may bend or warp when exposed to a sufficient amount of mechanical stress. Yield strength is a measurement of how much mechanical stress is required to cause a permanent deformation such as this.
Ultimate strength, on the other hand, is the maximum amount of mechanical stress to which an object can be exposed when pulled or stretched. Pulling or stretching, of course, can permanently damage objects. In applications where an object will be pulled or stretched, you should consider the object’s ultimate strength. This tensile strength metric will reveal how much mechanical stress the object can be exposed to when pulled or stretched before sustaining permanent damage.
Finally, there’s breaking strength. Along with yield strength and ultimate strength, breaking strength is one of the three metrics for tensile strength. Breaking strength is a measurement of how much mechanical stress a specific point on an object can withstand before breaking.1
In Conclusion
Tensile strength is commonly used to describe the strength of objects. With that said, it’s available in three specific metrics. These metrics include ultimate yield strength, ultimate strength and breaking strength. They all refer to the overall strength of an object, but they use different formulas.