PRISM utilizes the stress-relaxation technique where a small hole is drilled into the material thus relaxing the stress along the hole boundaries. The resulting deformation can then be measured precisely using the electronic speckle pattern interferometry system. The deformations are used to calculate the in-plane stress components. Accuracy of this technique has been demonstrated in a variety of metallic materials.

PRISM dramatically increases the speed of data acquisition over the traditional strain gage hole-drilling technique of measuring residual stress. The strain gage technique requires application of the strain gage, soldering of the leads and readout of the strains, followed by analysis of the strains to get residual stress. This process can take between 1 and 4 hours to complete. With PRISM, the strain gage is eliminated, and the entire drilling, data acquisition, and stress analysis functions are integrated in a single system. With a PRISM system, users can perform the entire operation and have stress results in less than 5 minutes.
 
PRISM also overcomes many of the challenges that are faced by users of XRD systems. Application of XRD for quality control is extremely specific to a material, component geometry, and type of diffraction analysis. PRISM only requires that you know the material elastic modulus, and is suitable for measurements in non-metallic parts, and materials with large grain size such as castings and Aluminum alloys.

The PRISM system is a fully integrated system that includes

	a laser light source
	a video head
	a computer controlled drilling system
	an automated data acquisition system for acquiring deformation maps, and
	a software package that processes the deformation data and visualizes the stress results.

 PRISM systems are available in a variety of configurations, from laboratory bench-top systems to portable systems.

KeyBenefits:                                                                                                                                                                

	Fast: typical measurement and analysis in less than 5 minutes
	High-resolution: monitor stress changes much less than 7 MPa
	Customizable: affordable solution designed specifically for your application
	Accurate: more data with full field of view, real-time surface measurements
	Non-contact: only requires direct visual path to part
	User friendly: Windows based software