The Zwick automatic test system with a high-speed testing machine accomplishes fully automatic high-speed penetration testing of plastics, says the company
It is designed for testing rectangular plastic specimens in accordance with ISO and ASTM.
The HTM2012 (20kN nominal force) high-speed testing machine with a hydraulic cylinder lies at the core of the automatic testing system.
The system is rounded out by the magazine for 240 specimens, the temperature chamber, the hydraulic power pack, the instrumented penetrator, the automatic mounting clamps, and the six-axis industrial robot with forceps.
The control and operation of the system is carried out using the modular software platform Testxpert Autoedition for the various automation tasks.
These include the management of the generated data and the control and process visualisation on the user interface.
The software continues to support the connection to standard Office programs as well as the transmission of results and parameters to the host computer.
The penetration test itself is controlled by the testing software Testxpert.
The special features of the system include the specimen temperature control.
A temperature chamber with revolving plant allows testing in the temperature range from -60C up to +160C.
A further feature is the integration of a camera.
It records images of the specimen remainders after the test and attaches them to the corresponding dataset as documentation.
An additional advantage is the highly dynamic test data recording during the penetration test, which uses appropriate sensors to achieve the required accuracy and dynamics.
The advantages of the system lie, for one, in the extremely low operational effort.
The operator simply places the specimen in the magazine and presses the start button.
On account of the low test costs per specimen, the system pays off within approximately two years accoding to Zwick.
An additional point is that the high-precision positioning of the automatic specimen feeding eliminates subjective influences by the operator.
