Kishore and Norm brought an exercise ball sample to WESTPAK, Inc.’s accredited test lab in San Jose, CA for testing using the Compression Test machine.
How much force will it take to burst the ball? Kishore guessed 2,000 pounds while Norm said 1,000 to 1,500 pounds was his estimate.
WESTPAK’s Compression Test machine uses hydraulic power to apply a force up to 15,000 pounds. Calibrated instruments record the applied force, distance traveled by the platen, the force at which failure occurred, and more.
Here’s the 30-inch exercise ball in the Compression Test machine during testing. The top platen has traveled down about 24 inches in this image; the ball failed a few seconds later.
This exercise ball stayed intact until failing at around 2,700 pounds of compressive force.
WESTPAK, Inc. routinely performs compression strength reliability testing on exercise balls using this machine; a deflection rate of 1 inch/minute is used for exercise ball samples.
Occasionally, a test sample fails to burst all the way to the machine’s 15,000-pound max force. This ball wasn’t one of those!
Check out TESTED.COM’s video to watch the exercise ball burst test.
The 3-minute video includes a can of Coke getting crushed and a Styrofoam skull (with a migraine) under a lot of pressure!
