The SER can also be used to perform tensile testing on elastic solids and semi-solids over a very broad range of strain rates and at deformation speeds hundreds of times faster than can be achieved with conventional tensile testing methods. The tensile properties of complex polymeric materials may also be characterized over a wide range of temperatures from the solid state to the melt state on miniature samples weighing just a few milligrams.

The broad range and high speed tensile rates achievable with the SER clearly reveal the rate dependent tensile behavior of crystalline polymers not observable with conventional testing. The tensile behavior of rheologically complex materials can be characterized from molten, to softened, to solid state in order to evaluate the strain dependence of crystallization.