What is a tensile tester?
A tensile tester, also known as a pull tester or universal testing machine (UTM), is an electromechanical test system that applies a tensile (pull) force to a material to determine the tensile strength and deformation behavior until break.
Tensile tests, a mechanical material testing method to determine the characteristic values of materials, are carried out with the aid of tensile machines or universal testing machines.
Depending on the type of material to be tested, the method is used according to the respective standard to determine the values of yield strength, tensile strength and elongation at break, among others.
Tensile tests
Tensile tests can be carried out on different types of specimens:
- One of the most characteristic is the corrugated steel bar, both in carbon steel and stainless steel or aluminum.
- In narrow machined specimens to determine the behavior of the material under uniaxial stress uniformly distributed in the section of the specimen.
- In notched specimens for the simulation of multiaxial stress states.
- In products such as cables and wires, yarns, films and foils, ropes, molding elements, components or groups of components.
What should we take into account when carrying out this type of test?
To carry out this type of tests, we must have the necessary equipment, among which, as we have already mentioned, the tensile machines stand out. They consist of two parts:
- The load producing device, which can be servohydraulic, servomechanical or pneumatic and which has a fixed and a mobile head.
- The load and displacement measuring device, which is electronic, regulates the application of the load and generates the diagrams that cause the behavior of the specimen.