Dia-Stron is the leading manufacturer of automated measurement systems for single fibres and filaments, ranging from single hair fibres and hair tresses to natural and man-made fibres. We have a unique and comprehensive approach to metrology, from design and development to production of complete scientific systems.
In April 2016, Dia-Stron became part of the Judges Scientific PLC group, an AIM-listed company specialising in the design and production of scientific instruments.
Company History:
Dia-Stron’s heritage lies in the development of scientific instrumentation for in-vivo skin testing applications. Soon after the company’s formation, the requirement for fast and reliable hair testing was realised and the company’s focus adjusted accordingly. Although we still maintain a bespoke skin instrumentation range today, it is our hair measurement expertise into which we have grown.
Our first hair instrument launch in the late 1980s was a miniature tensile tester with a micro-processor control and digital data output into a basic software package. By 1992, we were introducing our first automated tensile tester: a cassette based system that allowed up to 100 single fibres to be measured in an automated sequence, without any need for manual reloading.
Dia-Stron’s history may be rooted in hair fibre metrology, but our mission has always been to drive innovation in line with our customers’ ever changing requirements. A customer enquiry in early 2000 led Dia-Stron to begin trialling tensile and dimensional measurements of carbon fibres on our existing hair testing instrumentation, resulting in the development of the range of technical fibre testing instruments that we offer today.
These instruments have evolved specifically for measuring challenging technical fibre samples; starting with the inception of the LEX Linear Extensometer — a tensile measurement system with the high level of precision and sensitivity required for measuring carbon or glass filaments. We then released a specialist dimensional analysis module, the LDS (Laser Diffraction System), capable of accurate diameter measurements of fibres as small as 5μm. Our latest innovation, the IFSS module, takes us beyond single fibre/filament testing into exploring the relationships between fibres and matrices in composite materials.
Since then we’ve constantly developed and expanded our offering – most notably by widening our module options beyond tensile testing to include dimensional, fatigue, bending and torsional testing, as well as incorporating automation and additional diameter measurement modules. From the beginning our mission has been to develop new and improved fibre measurement techniques and approaches, while still producing results of the highest quality.