On 10 September, our university held a grand opening of a modernized mechanical testing laboratory. It was renovated and equipped with two new servohydraulic universal testing machines.

Evgeny Korolev, Vice-Rector for Research, emphasized that modern equipment would significantly expand the capabilities of students and scientists. According to the Vice-Rector, upgrading existing laboratories and opening new ones are among the tasks outlined in the university's development program for 2023–2032.

The symbolic ribbon was cut by the Vice-Rector together with Sergey Bezpalchuk, director of the SPbGASU Center for Collective Use. In his opinion, these machines are the best in their segment. They allow testing any materials for compression, tension, bending, including large-sized samples of wood, metal, concrete, composite materials. At the same time, it is possible to set different loads on one sample. The maximum compression load is 150 tons, and the maximum tension load is 100 tons.

Egor Kuzhman, a PhD student and employee of the SPbGASU Center for Collective Use, conducted a compression test of a prism made of fiber-reinforced concrete on new equipment. During the test, it was possible to find out that the destructive force of fiber-reinforced concrete was 50 tons.

The opening ceremony was attended by Ramasubbu Sunder, Director of R&D and Technical Support for Russia at BiSS (India), which helped produce the testing equipment. Mr. Sunder expressed confidence that it is necessary to develop cooperation between the two countries.

Currently, the laboratory also has a universal testing machine with a maximum load of 60 tons and a climate chamber to simulate various weather conditions.

"Strength of materials is one of the basic subjects at the technical university. Since SPbGASU is a construction university, the closest attention is paid to testing building materials and structures for strength. Our laboratory is in the process of development, but we are ready to accept students there this year," said Sergey Bezpalchuk.

The "Saint Petersburg" TV channel broadcasted a story about the opening of a new laboratory at SPbGASU.