Aerospace materials require uncompromising reliability, as components integrated into aircraft or spacecraft must maintain structural integrity under extreme thermal gradients, continuous vibration, and extensive pressurization cycles over several decades of service. Such rigorous operational environments necessitate comprehensive validation, as most conventional materials would fail without the exhaustive testing protocols required for aerospace qualification.
At Infinita Lab, we work directly with aerospace engineers and manufacturers to handle that testing. Metals, composites, polymers – whatever the material, whatever the standard, we cover it. That includes ASTM and ISO 17025, the frameworks this industry actually runs on.
Mechanical Testing for Aerospace Materials
You can’t assume a material will perform – you have to prove it. In aerospace, that proof starts with mechanical testing. Strength, ductility, hardness, toughness – every one of these properties has to be measured under conditions that reflect real service, because a data sheet won’t tell you what happens when temperatures climb, loads cycle, or impacts hit. We test metals, composites, and polymers across the full range of mechanical properties required by aerospace qualification demands.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM E8/E8M – Tension testing of metallic materials, including bars, tubes, sheets, and castings used in aerospace structures, run on standardized dogbone specimen geometries
- ASTM E21 – Tensile testing at elevated temperatures for metallic materials, measuring yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation at the actual service temperatures inside aircraft engines and hot-section components
- ASTM E10 – Brinell hardness testing of metallic materials for aerospace alloy qualification and incoming quality control
- ASTM E18 – Rockwell hardness testing for heat-treated aerospace steels and high-strength alloys
- ASTM E92 – Vickers hardness testing for microhardness profiling of alloy cross-sections and case-hardened components
- ASTM E23 – Charpy and Izod impact testing for metallic materials, measuring toughness and brittle fracture resistance at temperatures that actually matter for aerospace structural design
- ASTM D256 – Izod impact resistance testing for aerospace-grade polymers and composite materials
- ASTM E384 – Microindentation hardness testing (Vickers and Knoop) for case-hardened components, welds, and heat-affected zones in aerospace hardware
Tensile & Compressive Strength Testing
A material doesn’t earn a spot in a design just by looking good on paper. It has to demonstrate its load-carrying capacity through actual testing – yield strength, ultimate strength, elongation, modulus. These are the numbers engineers build designs around, and they need to be accurate. There’s no fixing a wrong number after a component has been designed and built around it.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM E8/E8M – The go-to standard for tension testing of metallic materials across bars, tubes, sheets, forgings, and castings
- ASTM D638 – Tensile testing for aerospace-grade polymers and plastic components, covering yield strength, elongation at break, and Young’s modulus
- ASTM D695 – Compressive strength and modulus testing for aerospace plastics and composite components
Fatigue & Fracture Toughness Testing
An aerospace component rarely fails due to a single large load event. It fails after millions of smaller ones – takeoffs, landings, pressurization cycles, turbulence – accumulated over a service life that might run twenty or thirty years. Fatigue and fracture toughness testing is how you figure out where cracks will nucleate, how fast they’ll propagate, and where the real safe-life limits are. Without this data, structural certification doesn’t happen.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM E399 – Plane-strain fracture toughness (K₁c) testing for metallic materials in fracture-critical structures – fuselage frames, wing spars, landing gear
- ASTM E647 – Fatigue crack growth rate testing, generating da/dN versus ΔK curves for aerospace damage tolerance assessments
- ASTM E466 – Axial fatigue testing under constant-amplitude force-controlled conditions, building S-N curves for component life prediction
- ASTM E2714 – Creep-fatigue testing for metallic materials in high-temperature environments like turbine discs and hot-section components
Creep & Stress Rupture Testing
Turbine blades and discs don’t just carry high loads – they carry them continuously, at temperatures where metals behave in ways that room-temperature testing will never show you. Metals creep. They deform slowly but steadily under sustained stress and heat, and eventually they don’t come back. Creep and stress-rupture testing is how you find out exactly when and how that happens, so you can set service life limits that actually mean something.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM E139 – Creep, creep-rupture, and stress-rupture testing for metallic materials under constant load and temperature, generating time-to-rupture and creep strain data for superalloy turbine blades, discs, and fasteners
- ASTM E2714 – Creep-fatigue interaction testing for metallic materials under the kind of cyclic thermal and mechanical loading found in aerospace propulsion systems
Composite Testing for Aerospace Structures
Composites have changed what’s possible in aerospace structural design – but they also fail in ways that metals simply don’t. Delamination spreads quietly without obvious signs. Fiber-matrix interfaces can degrade from moisture or impact without visible damage. Strength varies depending on the direction in which you load the material. These aren’t theoretical concerns – they’ve shown up in real structures and real failures. Our composite testing program is designed around those realities, not just the standard test matrix.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM D3039 – Tensile testing for continuously fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites, measuring tensile strength, modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and strain at failure for CFRP and GFRP structures
- ASTM D695 – Compressive strength and modulus testing for composite aerospace panels and laminates
- ASTM D790 – Flexural properties testing for composite aerospace components, including panels and beam-like structural members
- ASTM D7264 – Flexural properties testing specifically for polymer matrix composites in aerospace structural applications
Thermal Analysis of Aerospace Materials
No other application asks materials to function reliably across such a brutal temperature range. The same aircraft that sits baking on a Phoenix tarmac stores fuel at cryogenic temperatures and runs engine components well above 1000°C. A material that handles one end of that range poorly – softening too early, expanding too much, starting to decompose – can cause problems that only show up when it’s too late to do anything about them.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM D3418 – DSC for melting point, crystallization behavior, glass transition temperature (Tg), and oxidative induction time of aerospace polymers and composite matrices
- ASTM E1356 – DSC determination of glass transition temperatures for aerospace-grade polymers and amorphous materials
- ASTM E793 – DSC measurement of enthalpy of fusion for phase-change and energy storage materials used in aerospace thermal management
- ASTM E794 – DSC testing for melting and crystallization temperatures of aerospace polymers
- ASTM E1131 – TGA for compositional analysis, decomposition onset, and thermal stability of aerospace polymers, composites, and insulation materials
- ASTM E831 – CTE testing by TMA for dimensional stability predictions in aerospace structural assemblies and electronic packaging
- ASTM E1640 – DMA for storage/loss modulus versus temperature and glass transition temperature of aerospace composite matrices
Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) for Aerospace Components
A high-value aerospace forging or composite structure that took weeks to produce isn’t something you cut apart to look for defects. NDT is how you get the information you need – internal voids, surface cracks, weld anomalies, delaminations – without touching the part’s structural integrity. Depending on the component and where defects are likely to hide, we use different NDT methods to ensure nothing gets missed.
Radiographic Testing (RT):
- ASTM E94 – The foundational guide for radiographic examination using X-ray and gamma-ray methods for aerospace castings, welds, and forgings
- ASTM E1742 – Standard practice for radiographic examination of aerospace components,s including castings and weld assemblies
- ASTM E1570 – Standard practice for CT examination of aerospace castings, providing full 3D volumetric defect characterization
Magnetic Particle Testing (MPT):
- ASTM E1444 – The primary ASTM standard for fluorescent wet-method magnetic particle testing of aerospace landing gear, engine components, structural fittings, and fasteners
- ASTM E709 – Guide for Magnetic Particle Testing covering procedures, equipment, and technique selection for aerospace applications
Eddy Current & Visual Testing:
- ASTM E376 – Eddy current testing for coating thickness measurement and surface crack detection in conductive aerospace materials
- ASTM E1004 – Eddy current testing for electrical conductivity determination, alloy sorting, and surface crack detection in aerospace aluminum and titanium alloys
Chemical Composition & Metallurgical Analysis
Swapping one alloy for another in an aerospace assembly isn’t a substitution – it’s a potential failure waiting to happen. Composition verification has to happen at incoming inspection and at the right points through manufacturing, and it has to turn results around quickly enough that production doesn’t grind to a halt while you wait.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM E1086 – Spark OES for rapid multi-element chemical composition verification of aerospace steels and alloys on the production floor
- ASTM A418 – Ultrasonic examination of turbine and generator steel rotor forgings for aerospace propulsion systems, catching internal defects before finish machining
- ASTM E112 – Average grain size determination in metallic aerospace materials for microstructural quality control and failure analysis support
Aerospace Polymer & Polymer Matrix Composite Characterization
Polymers and composites show up throughout modern aircraft – interior panels, structural fairings, brackets, and more – because they’re light, strong, and capable of surviving tough thermal and chemical environments. The catch is that those properties aren’t fixed. Processing variability, moisture absorption during service, and thermal cycling all shift them. You have to test what you actually made, not what the spec sheet said you’d get.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM D638 – Tensile strength and modulus testing for aerospace-grade polymers and thermoplastic components
- ASTM D790 – Flexural modulus and strength testing for aerospace polymer components under bending loads
- ASTM D648 – Heat deflection temperature testing to define the service load limit of aerospace plastic components
- ASTM D570 – Water absorption testing for aerospace polymers that can pick up moisture and lose mechanical properties in humid environments
- ASTM D543 – Chemical resistance testing for aerospace polymers that see hydraulic fluids, fuels, and solvents in service
Flammability & Fire Testing for Aerospace Interiors
When a fire starts inside a pressurized aircraft cabin at altitude, there is very little time and nowhere to go. The interior materials – seat foams, wall panels, textiles, overhead bin liners – are the difference between a survivable event and one that isn’t. That’s why flammability requirements for aircraft interiors are some of the strictest in any industry, and why the testing behind them matters as much as it does. We evaluate every interior material against the standards that were written with that reality in mind.
Relevant ASTM Standards:
- ASTM D635 – Horizontal burning rate testing for plastic materials used in aircraft interiors
- ASTM E1354 – Cone calorimeter testing for heat release rate and ignitability of aircraft interior materials, used to support FAA and international airworthiness compliance
- ASTM E84 – Surface burning characteristics testing for composite and insulation materials installed in aerospace interiors
