One of the properties you can determine about a material is its ultimate tensile strength (UTS). This is the maximum load the specimen sustains during the test. The UTS may or may not equate to the strength at break. This all depends on what type of material you are testing. . .brittle, ductile, or a substance that even exhibits both properties. And sometimes a material may be ductile when tested in a lab, but, when placed in service and exposed to extreme cold temperatures, it may transition to brittle behavior.