Piuma Nanoindenter for Mechanical Characterization

Piuma Nanoindenter

The Piuma nanoindenter is a powerful table-top instrument to explore the micro-mechanical properties of biomaterials and hydrogels down to cell-length scales. By force sensing, this instrument can measure the mechanical properties of complex and irregular materials in physiological conditions. In addition, the Piuma nanoindenter is specifically designed to enable research on soft materials used in biological context.

Applications are, for example, engineered tissues, hydrogels, scaffolds, cartilage, spheroids, and 3D printed biomaterials. Above all, the Piuma nanoindenter provides accurate and precise mechanical measurements such as static and dynamic indentation, including creep, stress-relaxation and DMA. Last, load-displacements curves are analyzed by the software to provide Young’s, storage and loss moduli.

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Key Features

BRIDGE THE GAP FROM NANO-MECHANICS TO MACRO-MECHANICS

APPLY AND MEASURE EXTREMELY LOW FORCES

AUTOMATIC FIND-SURFACE FUNCTION

DIRECT DATA AND RESULT OUTPUT

ACCURATE, FAST, PRE-CALIBRATED AND EASY TO USE

LITTLE TO NO MAINTENANCE REQUIRED

What The Piuma Users Say

"The Piuma not only allows us to test the same hydrogel samples before and after testing their functionality, but also provides us the ability to probe spatial characteristics. This opens up new capabilities for further understanding of our system’s mechanisms, thus aiding in our design process."

Dr. Jason Kahn

Post Doctoral researcher at the Willner lab, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"We now are able to perform measurements on very low stiffness tissues, with a precision that allows us to study embryos. Colleagues are impressed and come with other challenges that the Piuma easily meets."

Prof. Dr. Ir. Smit

Dept. Orthopedic Surgery, VU University Medical Centre Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Technology

The Piuma Nanoindenter technology provides accurate and precise measurements of micro-mechanical properties of soft samples, both in-air or liquid. These unique capabilities are enabled by our patented micro-machined fiber-optic sensors.

This indentation instrument uses this sensor to gently push a spherical glass tip on the surface of the sample. By closely monitoring the resulting sample deformation, the Piuma Nanoindenter can rapidly provide all mechanical details of the indented spot.

In addition, all Optics11 Life probes are pre-calibrated making them plug-and-play design which streamlines experiments. This ensures fast measurements which is critical for time-sensitive biology-related experiments. Last, being small and portable yet powerful, the Piuma nanoindenter will fit any lab. Measuring the micro-mechanical properties of biomaterials has never been easier.

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PIUMA NANOINDENTER