Brookhouse has significantly expanded its mechanical, composites testing capabilities with the installation of a new 100 kN (2250 lbs) at its Darwen, Lancashire, materials testing laboratory. It will be used to carry out testing of the mechanical properties of incoming raw material and manufactured composite components and is specifically intended to handle some of the larger components and structures, which the company produces in its military and civil aircraft programs.

The new Instron 3382 rig complements the company's existing Instron mechanical testing facilities and its sophisticated thermal analysis instrumentation. It offers a load accuracy of 0.5% of indicated load and uses fully-integrated, Bluehill 2 intuitive software, which comes with a large library of standard test methods, allowing the software to be configured to meet most standards.

As with the existing Instron rigs, the Instron 3382 has the fixtures and jigs for measuring parameters such as tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, interlaminar shear strength and flat-wise tensile strength and for carrying out proof-loading of small assemblies and beam loading.

The installation of the new rig coincides with the employment of further laboratory personnel and extends Brookhouse's "captive laboratory" status, where the company can offer the aerospace sector total thermal and mechanical testing, as well as providing paint finish analysis, physical chemistry testing and microscopy. It is also further indication of Brookhouse's commitment to quality and to continuous investment to reinforce its position as the UK's largest independent composites manufacturer for the aerospace sector.

Brookhouse is an organisation totally focused on the aerospace sector, providing solutions in composites. It offers design and manufacturing for composites tooling, a facility for the repair of composite components and a capability for design, prototyping, manufacture, testing and finishing of complete composite components. As a result, Brookhouse can offer its worldwide customers a global facility to take responsibility for complete parcels of composites' development and manufacture projects.