Plastometrex to launch PLX-AutoStage automated PIP testing module in Q4 2026 with customer pre-orders

Plastometrex will commercially launch PLX-AutoStage in Q4 2026 as a modular add-on to its PLX-Benchtop system. The module automates Profilometry-based Indentation Plastometry (PIP), which extracts stress-strain curves-including yield strength and ultimate tensile strength-from indentation data using inverse finite element analysis. Users load and queue hundreds of tests, mark indent locations on digital images of each sample, and the combined system runs without further human intervention, placing indents within 150 microns of the selected point and as close as 1.5 mm apart. Multiple AutoStage units already operate at company headquarters, and several customers have placed pre-orders.

Mechanical testing of additively manufactured parts still sits between tensile coupons that are slow and hard to automate and hardness checks that only proxy strength. PLX-AutoStage targets that gap: CTO Jimmy Campbell described printing density cubes in all eight corners of an AM build envelope, removing them, running PIP, and mapping corner-to-corner data within an hour. The module is the firm's most-requested customer feature and is expected to ship as part of the standard PLX package, with optional opt-out, so manufacturers can gather more location-specific mechanical data without expanding lab headcount.

For production AM quality workflows, unattended full-curve data at many sites on a part is the practical upgrade path over sparse tensile campaigns.