Innovative Test Solutions

International Women in Engineering Day 2026.

Engineering has a representation gap that shows up in hiring pipelines, in mentorship, and in whose work gets attributed. Julia and Anna are doing the work in a mechanical testing environment where that perspective is not always present.

The frame is empty. The load cell is ready.

What goes in next depends on the problem you are trying to solve.

Drop it in the comments. What would you test?

If you are studying engineering and want an internship where you actually do the work, this one is worth a look.

At ITS you run tests, handle specimens, and work with data going into real validation programs. Real test ex*****on. Not observation.

See what the work looks like and apply: https://bit.ly/4511u4u

The most expensive assumptions in a validation program are the ones nobody flagged as assumptions.

Poisson's ratio influences how material behavior gets modeled under load. Most programs inherit a value from a data sheet and build on it without question. When a client needed this property measured under conditions a standard test configuration couldn't accommodate on a miniature specimen, ITS engineered a custom solution. The team designed a sub-miniature test rig to enable axial and lateral deformation captured simultaneously, under controlled conditions specific to the material and the application.

An assumed input and a measured one look the same until the model meets reality. When the standard test doesn't exist for your requirement, it can be built: https://bit.ly/4eyWTMp

In aerospace, margin isn't lost all at once. It's consumed.

Thermal cycling takes a cut. Vibration takes a cut. Manufacturing variation takes a cut. Each one is accounted for somewhere in the model, and each one is optimistic in ways that only become visible when the part is under real load in a real environment.

The margin that exists on paper and the margin that exists in the part are not always the same number. Validation isn't about proving the design works. It's about knowing how much margin is actually left after everything that model didn't fully capture has already taken its share.

Validation isn't about proving the design. It's about knowing what's actually left. See how ITS approaches aerospace testing: https://bit.ly/46r4TJU

Safety month means something different when you work in a mechanical testing lab.

It's not just protocols and signage. It's the data behind whether parts hold, structures stand, and systems perform when they need to. Every test that runs in this facility is connected to that outcome.

That is what safety looks like in practice.

Energy infrastructure doesn't fail all at once. It cycles.

Fatigue damage accumulates at stress concentration points long before anything looks wrong. For rotating equipment, pressure systems, and wind structures, the cycle count on a spec sheet and the cycle count to failure are not always the same number.

When cycle count becomes a design input, fatigue validation is where that conversation starts: https://bit.ly/4uMjkml

Sustained load at elevated temperature operates on a different failure mechanism than a tensile test captures. It builds quietly, and by the time it's visible, the part is already compromised and the program is already behind.

See what a creep testing program built around your service condition looks like: https://bit.ly/4esUwe6

A physics class from Gloversville High School came to see what happens after the theory.

They watched live mechanical tests run, saw vibration testing up close, and asked questions about the data and what the work actually requires. That is not a typical field trip. That is a group of students who already understand that the work matters before they have ever done it professionally.

Engineering needs more of that.

One of the more common sources of bad test data we see isn't the machine. It's the fixture.

Boundary conditions that don't reflect real service behavior produce results that look clean and lead somewhere wrong. Fixture design isn't a detail. It's where data integrity starts.

See what ITS brings to mechanical testing: https://bit.ly/4ncSzoe