Abstract: In order to promote the efficiency and precision in determining the strength of cigarette capsules, a ten-channel capsule strength tester was designed based on mechanical compression method. The tester was mainly composed of a ten-channel mechanical compression device, a pressure and displacement data acquisition unit, a slave computer for data processing and control, and a host computer for human-computer interaction. The mechanical compression device exerted an evenly distributed vertical pressure on the capsules, the pressure data were acquired via pressure sensors. The strength of capsule was characterized with the breakdown strength and magnitude of deformation. The precision and stability of the tester was validated as well. The results showed that:1)The tester could automatically test the capsules of 2.8 or 3.5 mm in diameter. 2)The test precision was up to 0.02 N with good repeatability. There existed no significant differences in capsule strength and deformation measurements between the designed tester and an imported one. The designed tester provides an efficient test method for the quality control of cigarette capsules.