The Penetration Test Cell is used to measure the force required for a probe to penetrate or puncture a product, such as the skins and underlying flesh of various fruits, crust of bakery products, and the jellying properties of desserts or other gels. The force is applied in a down- ward direction by securing the upper attachment block to the load cell and moving the ram down until the probe, placed in a key-type chuck, encounters the product sample resting on the base plate. The standard probe diameters are 3/16 inches and 5/16 inches with both a flat and rounded ends. Additional probes with cones, balls, compression disks and other diameters in both inches and millimeters are also available.

Other available test probes: