Specifications include, but are not limited to: 1. The Center for Graphene Research and Innovation (CGRI) needs to be able to perform ASTM D4065 “Standard Practice for Plastics: Dynamic Mechanical Properties: Determination and Report of Procedures”. 2. The DMA’s mechanical design must include a “frictionless” movement of the drive shaft and provide at least full 25mm of travel. 3. The DMA unit must include tension (film/fiber), compression, 3-point bend, penetration clamp, and shear clamp test fixtures for the various modes of deformation. Specialty clamps from previously purchased instruments should be able to be used with this instrument. In addition, DMA must accommodate submersion clamps (tension, compression, and bending) with fluid reservoirs and must support measurements performed while the sample is submersed in a fluid. 4. DMA must support the option to add relative humidity control and be able to be used with all the fixtures above. 5. Sample length measurement should be automatic in the tension mode. 6. Sample thickness measurement should be automatic in the compression mode. 7. The unit must be able to scan multiple frequencies while simultaneously ramping or stepping the temperature. 8. The unit must have the ability to perform creep, stress-relaxation, oscillation, force ramp-rate and strain-rate of extension/compression/flexure. 9. The furnace should be capable of cooling using automated Liquid Nitrogen control. It should also support automatic filling of the liquid nitrogen accessory during a run when not cooling. 10. The furnace should be able to reach a maximum temperature of at least 600 °C. 11. The furnace should be capable of supporting alternatives to Liquid Nitrogen cooling such as mechanical chillers. Such chillers must be directly controlled through the DMA software and must support a minimum temperature of at least -100 °C.
