Hansgrohe relies on Zwick for quality control

The increasing demands placed on the design and operation of bathroom fittings have given rise to new quality control requirements. To achieve high quality, products must be tested for resilience under the most realistic conditions possible. The Black Forest-based bathroom and sanitaryware specialist Hansgrohe AG uses a Zwick testing machine for this.

Bathroom fittings are subjected to constant loading through daily use. The materials and components employed must withstand regular tensile and compression loading by the user without the product quality being impaired over time. Checking push-fit, screw and press-fit  connections is an essential element of quality control and Hansgrohe uses a special Zwick testing machine to test these connections on shower hoses.

The testing machine is equipped with an extended test area of approximately 4000 mm, allowing the shower hose to be tested at its normal length during production. The hoses are subjected to a maximum tensile load of 5 kN (500 kg) to determine the tear force or the force required to loosen the hoses from the screw connections. The testing machine is also provided with a second test area, used for peel tests to determine how well the different hose layers adhere to each other. testXpert II testing software enables tests to be performed quickly and easily and the test report can be saved and exported in various formats (e.g. Word, Excel, PDF) after completion of the test.