Zwick’s Short Clamping-Length Grips See Increasing Use in Automotive Industry

More and more tests require short specimens or short clamping lengths to be gripped and held securely in standard specimen grips. Innovative hydraulic grips developed by Zwick especially for these applications are increasingly being used for quality assurance testing in the automotive industry.

The ever-growing demands on active and passive vehicle safety have resulted in significant changes in safety design. Many different process stages (heat treatment, forming, welding, riveting, bonding) are involved in the manufacture of structural components such as bumper assemblies or A and B pillars. In order to be able to check material properties accurately following each production step, specimens must be produced directly from the structural components. Due to the small surface areas involved these specimens are of necessity very small and could not be held securely and tested using existing specimen grips.

The new hydraulic grips close symmetrically. The patented precision mechanical guidance system fitted to the two hydraulic actuators actively counteracts the high tilting moments which arise on guides and actuators where short clamping lengths are involved. This provides parallel, uniform gripping of short specimen ends (= short clamping lengths) throughout the test. The guidance system also automatically ensures accurate alignment in the test and force axis. These new Zwick grips therefore guarantee reproducible testing of material properties directly after production stages.

Short specimens often rule out the use of conventional contact extensometers. An alternative solution for this application is offered by Zwick’s special optical extensometers (e.g. laserXtens Compact, videoXtens), which enable reproducible non-contact strain measurement on even the shortest or most inaccessible specimens.

The grips are available up to Fmax 250 kN and can be used for both flat and round specimens.

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