Frontier Scientific Testing & Research is most trusted name for testing metallic materials and their ability to resist of   impact to help determine service life of a part. FST&R has the capability of performing a variety of impact tests, including Charpy ,IZOD, Instrumental, Drop-Weight and Dynamic Tear Testing.

Impact tests are used in studying the toughness of material. A material's toughness is a factor of its ability to absorb energy during plastic deformation. Brittle materials have low toughness as a result of the small amount of plastic deformation that they can endure. The impact value of a material can also change with temperature. Generally, at lower temperatures, the impact energy of a material is decreased. The size of the specimen may also affect the value of the Izod impact test because it may allow a different number of imperfections in the material, which can act as stress risers and lower the impact energy.

Impact testing most commonly consists of Charpy and IZOD Specimen configurations. The Charpy Impact Tests‍ are conducted on instrumented machines capable of measuring less than 1 Joule to 450 Joules at temperatures ranging from -196℃ to over 900℃. Impact test specimen types include notch configurations such as V-Notch, U-Notch, Key-Hole Notch, as well as Un-notched and ISO (DIN) V-Notch, with capabilities of impact testing sub size specimens down to ¼ size.

Charpy Impact Test

Also known as the Charpy V-notch test, is a standardized high strain-rate test which determines the amount of energy absorbed by a material during fracture. This absorbed energy is a measure of a given material's notch toughness and acts as a tool to study temperature-dependent ductile-brittle transition.

IZOD Impact Strength Test

Izod impact testing is an ASTM standard method of determining the impact resistance of materials. A pivoting arm is raised to a specific height (constant potential energy) and then released. The arm swings down hitting a notched sample, breaking the specimen. The energy absorbed by the sample is calculated from the height the arm swings to after hitting the sample. A notched sample is generally used to determine impact energy and notch sensitivity.

The test is similar to the Charpy impact test but uses a different arrangement of the specimen under test. The Izod impact test differs from the Charpy impact test in that the sample is held in a cantilevered beam configuration as opposed to a three-point bending configuration.

Instrumented Impact Test

In standard testing, such as tensile and flexural testing, the material absorbs energy slowly.

In everyday life, materials often must absorb energies very rapidly from falling objects, blows, collisions, drops, etc. Instrumented Impact testing is designed to simulate these conditions. FST&R offers a line of instrumented Impact Testing to meet these needs. Instrumented Impact Testing includes:

•Penetration testing of thick panel specimens such as graphite-epoxy, fiberglass, polycarbonate and sheet steel.

•Energy absorption and fracture resistance testing of large components including pipe, appliance housings, safety helmets, and automotive components.

•Three-point bend testing to ASTM specification geometries such as ASTM E-604 dynamic tear test, ASTM E-436 drop weight tear test, and ASTM E-208 nil-ductility test.

Drop-Weight Test

Drop-Weight testing is preformed to ASTM E208. This test is conducted to determine the nil ductility transition temperature (NDT) of materials. Impact testing can also be conducted to your temperature requirements from elevated temperature down to -320°F.   

Dynamic Tear Test

ASTM E604 is the standard test method for Dynamic Tear testing of metallic materials as defined by ASTM International. Dynamic Tear Testing has a wide range of Research and Development applications. Used to study the effects of metallurgical variables like heat treatment, composition, and processing methods on the dynamic tear fracture resistance of material. Manufacturing processes, such as welding, can be effectively evaluated for their effect on dynamic tear fracture resistance Additional uses for this impact test include evaluating the appropriateness of selecting a material for an application where a baseline correlation between Dynamic Tear energy and actual performance has been developed.

FST&R can provide the following standard tests:

ASTM E23

ASTM E208

ASTM E604

ASTM E436

ASTM E23M

Standard Test Methods for Notched Bar Impact Testing of Metallic Materials

The essential features of an impact test are: a suitable specimen (specimens of several different types are recognized), a set of anvils, and specimen supports on which the test specimen is placed to receive the blow of the moving mass, a moving mass that has sufficient energy to break the specimen placed in its path, and a device for measuring the energy absorbed by the broken specimen.

ASTM E208

Standard Test Method for Conducting Drop-Weight Test to Determine Nil-Ductility Transition Temperature of Ferritic Steels      

The drop-weight test employs simple beam specimens specially prepared to create a material crack in their tensile surfaces at an early time interval of the test. The test is conducted by subjecting each of a series (generally four to eight) of specimens of a given material to a single impact load at a sequence of selected temperatures to determine the maximum temperature at which a specimen breaks. The impact load is provided by a guided, free-falling weight with an energy of 250 to 1400 ft·lbf (340 to 1900 J) depending on the yield strength of the steel to be tested. The specimens are prevented by a stop from deflecting more than a few tenths of an inch.

ASTM E604

ASTM E604 Standard Test Method for Dynamic Tear Testing of Metallic Materials   

The DT energy value is a measure of resistance to rapid progressive fracturing. In a number of applications, the enhanced resistance that may develop during about one plate thickness of crack extension from a sharp notch is of major interest. In the test method, a sufficiently long fracture path is provided so that the results serve as a measure of this property.

ASTM E436

Standard Test Method for Drop-Weight Tear Tests of Ferritic Steels

This test method can be used to determine the appearance of propagating fractures in plain carbon or low-alloy pipe steels (yield strengths less than 825 MPa) over the temperature range where the fracture mode changes from brittle (cleavage or flat) to ductile (shear or oblique).