How to Crush Frac Sand – Part 1

In our adventure to open up the doors of the lab and let you inside, we are putting together a video series of how we do the testing in the lab.

Here is a video I just put out on how to split and weigh a sample for crush resistance testing:

This video will be followed by others, in a frac sand crush test series.

Let’s call it an epic “mini-series.” Like Lonesome Dove.

Splitting and weighing are important to frac sand lab work.

Splitting is using a simple steel device with dividers to split one sample of sand into two.

You pour the sand in the top, and steel dividers ensure that one sample becomes two representative samples in sand quality and mass.

Splitting ensures that every test gets a true representative sample of the original sand.

And weighing accurately is important during a crush because we are trying to build a small cylinder of sand to crush every time. Since at least 3 crushes are required for 1 crush test result (they are averaged together), it’s key to get the mass correct for each sample.

The frac sand crush test requires that the sample be weighed to 3 decimal places (down to the milligram.).

Here’s the video again of a professional actor turned lab technician (ha) showing you how to split and weigh a crush test sample:

For more information on crush testing, other frac sand tests, barite testing, or testing of everything from aluminum to zirconium, go here:

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