The Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences relies on testing machines from Hegewald & Peschke. The institution is engaged in researching physical properties and transformations of materials at extremely high pressures. The studies are related to different materials such as semiconductors, ceramics, biological materials and metals.
A tensile testing machine inspekt duo with a maximum tensile load of 5 kN is used to perform various material tests for research purposes. The machine is equipped with a safety door, a video extensometer and various clamping tools.
Tensile tests on metals and plastics
At the research facility, the tensile testing machine is used, among other things, to perform tensile tests on metallic materials in accordance with EN ISO 6892-1 to determine yield strength, tensile strength and elongation at break. Furthermore, tensile properties of plastics are determined according to ISO 527-1 (e.g. tensile stress, elongation, Poisson’s ratio). In addition, the testing technique is used for creep tests to determine the plastic time-dependent deformation of a specimen.
Optical strain measurement in tensile testing
A video extensometer is used for optical strain measurement. The field of view of the extensometer is specially designed for very small specimens. The material specimens at the Institute of High Pressure Physics are often so small that in some cases only 5 mm of specimen length is visible between the grips. For this purpose, a special lens for macro images is used in the extensometer. The video extensometer ONE from Hegewald & Peschke works on the basis of high-resolution video technology using the surface structure, so that no artificial markings are necessary for strain measurement if the sample surface is suitable.