A dilatometer measures the linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of a solid material. The CTE is temperature dependent and typically increases with increasing temperature. The measurement results in accurate data for calculations. Furthermore it is used to analyse an unknown material and predict the material group it belongs to without the need for expensive chemical analysis.

A small sized sample is placed in the sample holder and the length of the sample is measured during heating and cooling. An accurate measurement can be made when the temperature of the sample is stable. Measurements are carried out between room temperature and the temperature at which the CTE needs to be known. For ceramic materials temperatures between 400 - 1100 ^oC are used. To avoid oxidation of the sample inert gas (i.e. argon) can flow over the sample.

The instrument is calibrated with a standard and the correction factor is used to calculate the corrected CTE of a sample. The length and the temperature signals are fed to a computer.The temperature-length graph and the corrected CTE are obtained. To increase accuracy the measurement is duplicated.

MITECON produces a report in Acrobat format containing all details of the measurement.