I built this machine to measure the creep (slow deformation under load over time) of various plastics. It uses a heated chamber and weights to bend a plastic specimen over time. The deflection is recored through modified calipers and an Arduino, which sends the data to a connected computer to be recoded. When the deflection vs time is plotted it produces the curves shown below. This machine allowed me to compare the creep tendencies of various plastics, and determine which was most sensitive to high temperatures.