Materials and components testing

How does your material respond to extreme and multiaxial impact loads?

We test your material’s response to extreme and multiaxial impact loads

We test materials, structural details, and components under extreme uniaxial and multiaxial impact loads such as tension, compression, torsion, bending, or shearing. We specialize in destructive, highly dynamic materials testing for strain rate, temperature, and state of stress.

If you are looking for a particular materials testing method, please see the table for detailed information about the testing methods we can carry out in our test laboratory. This page also provides information about:

highly dynamic materials testing in general
our testing devices, measurement technology, and lab equipment for highly dynamic materials testing
the materials we test
the sectors for which we carry out materials testing

Highly dynamic materials testing methods at Nordmetall

Tensile tests
Charpy impact tests
Bending tests
Bulge tests
Compression tests
Shear tests
Torsional tests

Taylor tests
Toughness tests
Microhardness and macrohardness measurement
Technological tests (e.g., forming limit diagrams (FLD) and hole expansion tests)
Further methods on request

Highly dynamic materials testing: Impact or crash tests for your material or component

Highly dynamic materials testing vs. fatigue testing

We make a clear distinction between highly dynamic materials testing, with its destructive, impact loading, and testing materials for fatigue. Although the latter is sometimes also referred to as dynamic testing, the two types of testing have nothing substantive in common. When a material is fatigue-tested, it is subjected to many cycles of low loads below the yield point. For example, a drawer is opened and closed until the material fatigues. In contrast to this, highly dynamic materials testing is like a crash test for a material specimen or component.

What does highly dynamic materials testing test?

The mechanical properties of many materials change as loading rates increase: flow stresses rise, and the elongation at break increases or decreases depending on the material. This influences how much energy a component made of a certain material can absorb under impact loading before it fails. We test strain rate dependency by measuring the change in material properties using different testing methods and devices. After we have collected the material characteristics experimentally, we create material models for your simulations.

What are the particular challenges of highly dynamic materials testing?

The tests often last only a few milliseconds or microseconds. This places particularly high demands on the testing technology. Nordmetall’s measurement technology has a high cutoff frequency and a high measuring rate. For optical measurements, we use high-speed cameras. The short force pulse in highly dynamic materials testing causes the material to vibrate. So our testing devices are designed to allow low-vibration measurement. This low-vibration measurement itself is another particular challenge in materials testing.

Development of material models and material cards

From the results of the materials tests under different loads, orientations, strain rates, and temperatures, we derive material cards for numerical simulation, which we then validate by means of component tests. The material cards describe the strength behavior and failure behavior of your material.

If you need a material model, we will work closely with you to define the requirements. The desired temperature and strain rate ranges as well as the simulation quality have a decisive effect on materials testing costs.

Testing devices, measurement technology, and test laboratory equipment for highly dynamic materials testing at Nordmetall

For comparative tests in the slow, quasi-static range, we work with universal testing machines. For higher strain rates, we use special testing machines that can carry out low-vibration measurements and highly dynamic measuring devices for good measurement results. Our testing machines have specific fixtures and forms for material specimens to enable testing of the desired load type (tensile, compression, shear, or bending testing) with the best data quality.

Universal testing machines: Materials testing in the slow, quasi-static, and quasi-dynamic range

Drop impact testers: Materials testing in the medium- and high-speed range for compression, shear, bending, and toughness tests

Rotational impact testers: Materials testing in the medium-speed range for tensile tests

Split Hopkinson pressure bar testers: Materials testing in the highly dynamic range for compression and shear tests

Gas pressure cannon: Materials testing at particularly high speeds

DYNATOR torsional testing machine: Test rig developed by us in cooperation with WTD91 to test shear behavior resulting from torsional loading in the quasi-static and highly dynamic ranges

Vibration testing machine (Sincotec): testing for material fatigue (tension, compression, bending), generation of incipient cracks, tests on large specimens (100kN)

Instrumented impact testing (Charpy V notch): Materials testing of bending load on high-speed notch impact
Heat treatment furnaces: Development and design of metallic materials
Equipment for the development and optimization of materials

Measurement technology
- 3D optical scanning technology (ATOS)
- High-speed cameras and ultra-high-speed cameras
- Aramis deformation-field measurement: High-resolution camera system for coupling to high-speed camera systems for image correlation
- Electro-optical extensometer: Very fast measurement system for contactless measurement of displacements or strains in the x or y direction
- High-speed data-recording systems: For force and strain measurement
- Macro- and microhardness measurement
- Temperature measurement (pyrometer and direct measurement)

We test different materials for changes in their properties

Materials testing of metals

We determine the strength, deformation, and toughness behavior of metallic materials, from quasi-static to dynamic-impact or crash-loading cases.
We test material behavior under the effect of stress multiaxiality and temperature.
We have experience in steels, titanium alloys, and lightweight aluminum- or magnesium-based alloys.
We are a partner to the automotive industry, particularly in the field of body-panel characterization.
We comprehensively record anisotropic material behavior, convert it into material models, and create forming limit diagrams (FLDs).
We test high-strength and ultra-high-strength materials for the safety sector (steel, aluminum).
We develop validated material cards for numerical simulation.

Materials testing of ceramics and glasses

We determine the material parameters under realistic loading for an accurate description of material behavior:
- Bending tests: quasi-static to highly dynamic at > 10 m/s
- Determination of compressive strengths up to a strain rate of > 1000 s–1
- Determination of residual strengths in pre-damaged materials
- Creation of material cards for carrying out FEM calculations.

Materials testing of plastics and fiber-reinforced plastics

We have developed specific testing methods for characterizing these technically demanding materials even under impact (crash) loads.
Material characterization across a wide range of strain rates (on request) and loading conditions (tensile/compressive/tensile–tensile/shear)
Creation of validated material cards for various FE solvers

Materials testing of construction materials and soil mechanics

We determine material behavior under realistic loading.
We use a drop impact tester with a drop weight of 5.5 t, which allows us to achieve very high pressures of > 1000 MPa at a high loading rate of ~ 4 m/s.
- Carrying out confined compression tests at high loading rates
- Determining compression curves up to very high pressures of >1000 MPa
- Modeling material behavior with appropriate approaches
- Creating material cards to support FEM calculations

Materials testing of wood and paper

Materials testing of biomaterials

Nordmetall carries out materials testing for a variety of sectors

Materials and component testing in the automotive sector

We determine material characteristics from quasi-static to dynamic-impact (crash) loading using high-precision measurement technology.
We characterize all steel/cast types, aluminum alloys, and magnesium materials as well as special materials such as titanium alloys, tungsten heavy alloys, and all composite materials across a broad spectrum of stresses.
We test all manner of joints such as welded, bonded, screwed, and riveted joints.
We offer the following services:

- Material characterization in a strain-rate range between 103 s–1 and approx. 5000 s–1 (10,000 s–1 for compressive) and a temperature range between –196°C and 1200°C
- r- and n-value determination
- Determination of flow curves and failure curves
- Determination of forming limit diagrams (FLDs)
- Modeling and simulation
- Validation tests
- Component and assembly testing

Materials testing for rail, water, and air transportation

We test the material behavior of lightweight materials for the transportation industry specifically under dynamic-impact loading (crash scenario).
We examine shipbuilding steels and fiber-reinforced plastics for applications on and under water. We have unique testing systems for this purpose, which even allow us to characterize ultra-high-strength yet ductile materials.
We coordinate closely with our customers to develop in-house testing methods for impact processes. Our range of services includes fracture-toughness tests, Charpy impact tests, and the complete characterization of all manner of lightweight materials, as well as simulation and the creation of material cards.

Materials testing for sports equipment

We determine the appropriate highly dynamic material characteristics and simulate collision processes, e.g., of helmets and protectors for various types of sport. Our customers’ objective is optimized equipment, such as lighter helmets and protectors that cushion falls just as well as conventional equipment.
For example, we carry out highly dynamic testing of horseshoe studs for equestrian sports. The right choice of horseshoe stud both improves the performance of the horse and reduces its susceptibility to injury.
We offer you the complete material characterization as input data for simulations and component tests at high testing speeds.