Specimen Preparation and Dimensional Measurement

A good test starts with a good specimen. ZwickRoell offers a number of solutions for materials testing and also for specimen preparation and the measurement of plastics, rubber and elastomers, metals, or paper and cardboard.

Metals Plastics/Rubber and elastomers Paper and cardboard Specimen dimensioning

Metal specimen preparation or machining

Nowadays, specimens from sheet metal and metal foils are produced cost effectively and with accuracy using specimen blanking machines. Standards such as ISO 6892 and ASTM A370 specify that material changes due to strain hardening in the edge zone of the specimen may not influence the test results.

Numerous microstructural investigations on steel sheets have demonstrated that the strain-hardening zone along the cutting line is usually a maximum of 10% of the specimen thickness. This is achieved by a low cutting speed and special design of the blanking tools and offers considerable economic advantages in subsequent specimen grinding. This process ensures high quality of the specimen.

Download

Product Information: Specimen Blanking Machines PDF 593 KB
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Plastics/Rubber and elastomers - specimen preparation or machining

Standard thermoplastic and thermoset molding specimens are produced by injection or compression molding. Material characteristics are significantly influenced by production parameters such as pressure, temperature, and flow speed. Specimens are taken from slabs and components through mechanical processing such as per ISO 2818.

For specimen preparation on plastics and elastomers, ZwickRoell offers the following instruments/devices:

Overview of devices

Manual notching plane

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Manual notching plane

Used exclusively to notch plastic specimens according to standard ASTM D256, ASTM D6110, ISO 179, ISO 180, ISO 8256, ASTM D1822 and BS 7413:2002.

Key features:

The table-top device can be operated manually with one hand
With each turn of the crank, the notching plane causes a stroke of the blade, alternating with a sideways movement of the specimen magazine.
The extremely durable notching blade has three cutting edges and can be changed out quickly

Advantages:

Ergonomic operation
Interchangeable specimen magazine
Automated stop function when the remaining width is reached

Manual cutting press with bent lever

Used to produce specimens from rubber, elastomers and flexible foam materials with a maximum hardness of 60 Shore (to ISO 868) and a material thickness of 8 mm on plastic film and paper.
Specimen shapes: rectangular specimens, dumbbell specimens, round specimens and special-shape specimens.

Key features:

Enables precise, low effort and comfortable completion of tasks
30% higher cutting force compared to conventional presses
Can be set up on any workbench or laboratory table, or mounted at optimal height on a sturdy wall
Easy, quick, and accurate height adjustment of the compression die to accommodate the varying heights of different cutting blades

Advantages:

Standard-compliant machining of specimens
Simple operation
Long tool service life

Manual cutting press with eccentric lever

Used to produce specimens from rubber, elastomers and flexible foam materials with a maximum hardness of 60 Shore (to ISO 868) and a material thickness of 8 mm on plastic film and paper.
Specimen shapes: rectangular specimens, dumbbell specimens, round specimens and special-shape specimens.

Key features:

Designed to hold up to four cutting devices simultaneously
Rectangular specimens up to 160 x 30 mm and 75 x 75 mm square specimens can also be machined (option)

Advantages:

Standard-compliant machining of specimens
Simple operation
Long tool service life

Pneumatic cutting press

Used to produce specimens from rubber, elastomers and flexible foam materials with a maximum hardness of 60 Shore (to ISO 868) and a material thickness of 8 mm on plastic film and paper.
Specimen shapes: rectangular specimens, dumbbell specimens, round specimens and special-shape specimens.

Key features:

Allows for higher cutting forces
The standard specification includes two-handed operation, with a safety interlock and retainers for the cutting blades

Advantages:

Standard-compliant machining of specimens
Simple operation
Long tool service life

Automatic notch cutting machine

Used to notch plastic specimens according to standard ASTM D256, ASTM D6110, ISO 179, ISO 180 and ISO 8256, ASTM D1822 (Charpy and Izod tests)

Key features:

A v-shaped notch is machined on one side of the specimens using a milling head
Several test specimens are clamped into one stack and notched at the same time
We offer an optional measuring device to test the notch depth
Different cutters, which can be easily exchanged, are available for different materials and notch radii.

Advantages:

Stepless adjustment of cutting speed and feed rate
Manual notch-depth setting via fine-pitch screw-adjuster
Specimens are easily and securely fastened in the fast acting gripping device

Film strip cutter for plastic specimen preparation

Strip cutter for plastic film

With the ZwickRoell film strip cutter, up to 10 parallel specimen strips are produced in a single operation from films approximately DIN A 4 in size. These specimen strips can be used for standard-compliant performance of tensile strength tests on film.

Key features:

The adjustable double-cutting blade holder enables operation both towards and away from the operator.
The film is pulled over the curved clamping surface avoiding any wrinkles and fastened in the clamping groove on the front and back of the device by means of the rubberized clamping strip. The cutting operation is performed by simply moving the handle on the swivel frame in the desired direction.
The position of the cutting blades in the swivel frame ensures safe and injury-free operation of the film strip cutter.

roboTest X specimen blanking machines for automated preparation of plastic specimens

Automated specimen preparation system

A 10kN materials testing machine with motorized X-Y table is used with the automatic specimen-blanking machine.

Key features:

The operator is protected by a safety device around the blanking tool and the moving crosshead.
Specimen sheets are placed on the motor-driven X-Y table and secured with quick-acting clamps. The system is started and specimens are punched out of the sheets in different positions according to the test program or blanking program. The blanking tool itself is fitted with an automatic cup extractor.
The specimen shape depends on the blanking tool installed. Various blanking tools can be used, entirely according to your requirements. The blanking tool is changed manually.

Downloads

Product Information: Manual Notching Plane PDF 254 KB
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Product Information: Cutting Presses PDF 823 KB
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Product Information: Automatic notch cutting machine PDF 2 MB
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Product Information: Strip cutter for plastic film PDF 218 KB
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Paper and cardboard – specimen preparation or machining

Clean cuts, precise angles, parallelism, blade service life and quick work ultimately optimize the specimen for testing.

For the preparation of paper and cardboard specimens, ZwickRoell offers the following devices:

Paper and cardboard specimen preparation

Overview of devices

Paper strip cutter

Each of the five available models for strip widths 12.7 / 15 / 15 and 25 / 25.4 / 50 mm are suitable for paper with a mass per unit area of 30 g/m² to 350 g/m². The are supplied with a holding-down clamp and a set of spare cutting wheels.

Circular cutter

Circular cutters are used to produce round specimens for flat crush tests (FCT) to ISO 3035 and EN 23035 on paper, cardboard and corrugated board. With a quarter turn of the handle, the four blades cut out a circular specimen with a surface area of 50 or 100 cm2, for specimen thicknesses of max. 5 mm. Both models are supplied with a cutting pad and 10 spare blades.

Fluter

The fluter is used to machine CMT specimens to ISO 7263, TAPPI T809, and SCAN P27.

Automatic edge crush test (ECT) - specimen saw

The ECT specimen saw with automatic cutting guide is used to machine standard-compliant specimens for edge crush tests (ECT) on corrugated board according to DIN EN ISO 3037. They must be conditioned according to standard ISO 187. The automatic carriage advance enables exact reproducibility for a wide range of specimens, as all are sawed under the same conditions.

Advantages:

Specimens are machined with parallelism better than 0.05 mm.
With optimum adjustment (rpm and carriage advance), ECT values 15–20% above the standard value can be obtained.
The rotational speed is steplessly adjustable in a range of 5000 to 24000 rpm.

Downloads

Product Information: Paper strip cutter PDF 102 KB
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Product Information: Circular Cutter PDF 129 KB
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Product Information: Fluter PDF 784 KB
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Product Information: Automatic ECT Specimen Saw PDF 1 MB
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Cross-section measurement and thickness measurement

International standards for tensile tests or flexure tests place high demands on the specimen cross-section measurement.

Measuring errors can occur very quickly if the caliper is tilted or bent open. However, specimens with burrs or tapered specimen edges on flat specimens can also lead to incorrect manual measurements with a caliper.

High measurement accuracy also requires you to measure the thickness of particularly thin or unstable specimens.

Cross-section measuring devices and thickness measuring devices from ZwickRoell ensure accurate and reproducible determination of the specimen dimensions.