Plastometrex Automates Metal Testing With PLX-AutoStage

What PIP testing actually measures

PIP, or Profilometry-based Indentation Plastometry, extracts full stress-strain curves from a tiny indentation on a metal surface. Traditional tensile testing destroys the sample and takes hours to set up. Hardness testing is faster, but it only gives a proxy for strength, not the actual yield strength or ultimate tensile strength. PIP sits between those two methods: non-destructive, relatively fast, and capable of returning real mechanical property data.

How AutoStage changes the workflow

The PLX-AutoStage is an add-on for the existing PLX-Benchtop. It automates sample positioning, so users can load a queue of parts, select indentation points on a digital image, and let the system run without further input. Plastometrex says the module can handle hundreds of tests in sequence, with indent spacing as tight as 1.5mm across a single component.

Jimmy Campbell, Plastometrex CTO, told TCT Magazine the system addresses a real bottleneck: "You get your mechanical property data either from a tensile test, which is slow and hard to automate, or from a hardness test, which doesn't give you yield strength or UTS. The PLX-AutoStage lets you streamline the workflow and get accurate properties across hundreds of tests."

Where it matters most

Additive manufacturing is the immediate beneficiary. Build envelopes have multiple corners and orientations, each with slightly different density and strength. With AutoStage, a manufacturer can print density cubes in all eight corners of a build, test them all within an hour, and map mechanical property variation across the entire build area. That level of spatial data was not practical before because the manual process took too long.

The bigger picture

Automated mechanical testing has been the missing link in industrial 3D printing quality control. Most shops still rely on coupon testing: printing separate tensile bars alongside the real part and hoping they represent the build. That approach only works if the coupons were printed in the same location, same orientation, and same batch. PIP mapping changes the assumption. You test the actual part, or a representative geometry cut from the actual build, and you get spatially resolved data without destroying it.

Plastometrex is taking pre-orders now and expects to ship the PLX-AutoStage in Q4 2026. The company plans to include it in the standard package, though buyers can opt out if they do not need the throughput.