How are weight limits on chairs and other things tested?
In: 0
Materials are produced in a specific way so they will have a certain amount of strength and toughness. When you buy a specific grade of steel, aluminium, or whatever, you know what it can do based on the specifications. Every batch of material that the steel mill produces gets tested via a small section to ensure it meets the intended specification.
When a product is designed, the designer knows (or more likely an engineer who checks his work) what it should be able to handle based on the material specs. In modern times you can do this all on a computer and use a special program to do tests on it. Finally you test it in real life by making one and putting weights on it. (Testing using overweight people would be an OSHA violation and difficult to repeat accurately)
Latest Answers