{"id":4662,"date":"2026-06-23T17:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/cement-compressive-strength-test-en-196-1\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:52:51","slug":"cement-compressive-strength-test-en-196-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/cement-compressive-strength-test-en-196-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Cement Compressive Strength Test (EN 196-1): Method &#038; Apparatus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>cement compressive strength test<\/strong> to EN 196-1 is the reference method for classifying cement, determining the strength developed by a standard mortar at fixed ages.<\/p>\n<h2>What the Test Measures<\/h2>\n<p>Standard mortar prisms (40 \u00d7 40 \u00d7 160 mm) are made with CEN reference sand at a fixed water\/cement ratio. Each prism is first broken in flexure; the two halves are then tested in compression. The 28-day compressive strength defines the cement strength class (e.g. 42.5, 52.5).<\/p>\n<h2>Apparatus Required<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Compression machine with 40 mm platens (and a flexural device)<\/li>\n<li>Prism moulds (40 \u00d7 40 \u00d7 160 mm) and a standard jolting\/mortar mixer<\/li>\n<li>CEN standard sand and curing tank<\/li>\n<li>Calibrated load measurement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NL Scientific manufactures the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/product\/automatic-mortar-compression-flexural-machine-500-kn-30-kn\/\">Automatic Mortar Compression &#038; Flexural Machine 500 kN<\/a> and the full <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/product-category\/cement-mortar\/\">cement &#038; mortar testing range<\/a>, built to ASTM, EN, BS and AASHTO requirements with ISO\/IEC 17025 accredited calibration.<\/p>\n<h2>Test Procedure<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Mix standard mortar and cast prisms, compacting on the jolting apparatus.<\/li>\n<li>Cure prisms in water at 20\u00b0C to the test age (commonly 2 and 28 days).<\/li>\n<li>Break each prism in flexure to obtain two halves.<\/li>\n<li>Compress each half between 40 mm platens, loading at 2400 \u00b1 200 N\/s.<\/li>\n<li>Record the maximum load for each half.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Calculation &amp; Reporting<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Compressive strength = Maximum load &divide; 1600 mm\u00b2<\/strong> (the 40 \u00d7 40 mm platen area), reported as the mean of the six half-prism results in MPa.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptance Criteria<\/h2>\n<p>The 28-day mean must meet the limits for the declared strength class under EN 197-1 (for example \u2265 42.5 MPa for class 42.5 N). Early-age (2-day) strength confirms the N or R sub-class.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Why test the prism halves and not separate cubes?<\/h3>\n<p>EN 196-1 derives compressive specimens from the flexural test halves, which is efficient and standardised; the 40 mm platen area fixes the stressed area.<\/p>\n<h3>Is EN 196-1 the same as ASTM C109?<\/h3>\n<p>Both measure mortar compressive strength but differ in specimen (EN uses prism halves, ASTM uses 50 mm cubes) and sand, so results are not directly interchangeable.<\/p>\n<p><em>Need the right equipment for your laboratory?<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/contact-us\/\">Contact NL Scientific for a quotation<\/a> &mdash; Asia&#8217;s leading manufacturer of civil engineering and material testing equipment, shipping worldwide.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cement mortar strength to EN 196-1: prism casting, flexural and compression testing, loading rates and strength-class acceptance.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4666,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions\/4666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}