The continuous search for new technology solutions backed by over 70 years of experience has led Wykeham Farrance to an important threshold which shows, yet again, how well directed research investment can result in technological successes both in terms of quality and price. Wykeham Farrance, the Soil Mechanics Division of CONTROLS, has always worked closely with universities and research centers in sharing ideas and developing technologies that can be industrialised in the field of stringent quality control and reliability, which is now well recognized as the basis for successful development. The company is a pioneer in the application of automation to geotechnical apparatus.

This automation, the company says, “allows full compliance with international standards, the exclusion of user errors and it avoids discrepancies due to non-calibrated instruments or testing interruptions at the end of the working day. Above all laboratory productivity is highly increased with a consequent reduction of costs.”

Fully automatic systems are such as:

• SHEARMATIC, for direct/residual shear tests

• AUTOTRIAX, for static triaxial tests , effective stress, stress path, permeability and unsaturated soil testing

• DYNATRIAX, for dynamic triaxial testing and a combined resonant column/cyclic torsional shear apparatus.

These allow the user to set all the test parameters beforehand and start the tests to run automatically. Dynatriax, the automatic dynamic triaxial system, represents the new generation of dynamic systems since it allows the replication of any kind of wave shapes (from violent earthquake to sedate ocean waves) with a high level of accuracy, reducing testing time.