Ray-Ran Instrumented Falling Weight Impact Tester

The Instrumented Falling Weight Impact Tester characterises the resistance of materials to impact events and defines the damage incurred using force and velocity transducers. It provides real-time data for parameters, including impact energy and depth of impact for the sample under test.

Ideal for testing a variety of materials

Typical materials tested are composites and rigid plastics, such as fibre glass, laminates and engineering polymers and elastomers as well as ceramic materials. This makes the system ideal for research in industries including Automotive, Aerospace and Construction as well as in Universities.

Configurable to your needs

Utilizing pneumatic Tup return and electrical height adjustment, the system is extremely versatile, with configurability in terms of maximum drop height, maximum falling weight capacity, impact head geometry, instrumentation capacity and also the sample cabinet dimensions so as to cater for larger specimen such as large diameter pipe segments. The 1m, 2m and 3.35m height options can achieve maximum impact velocities of 4.42m/s, 6.26m/s and 8.1m/s respectively, with the drop mass range of 1kg to 35kg producing an impact energy range up to 1100J.

Fixtures

With pneumatic clamping for flat specimens supplied as standard plus the option for custom manual clamping, pipe “V” rests and other custom fixturing, the sample cabinet can cater for a wide range of specimens. The falling assembly consists of interchangeable rail-guided carrier plates that cover specific weight ranges, adjustable through additional weight sets that are added above the plate. Interchangeable impacting heads are connected to the underside of the carrier plate and can have bespoke geometry with existing options available to cover a range of testing standards.

Flat Plate / Plaque Testing

The standard pneumatic specimen clamp can include various sizes of support ring to cater for a wide range of flat specimen types and reletove testing standards. There is also a manual calmping option for specimens with specific requirements or geometries.

Pipe Testing “V” rest

The test is used for the examination of pipe sections and tubing for impact strength properties as complete segments of pipe. Sample diameters from as little as 12mm Ø up to 400mm Ø can be tested on the standard machine and up to 650mm Ø on an extended base system. The Pipe is supported in either a 90° or a 120° angled “V” support as is impacted by the load carrier in a single drop. The support rests can be manufactured to any test standard or customer requirement.

Other Fixtures

For specific component testing Ray-Ran can design and manufacture bespoke clamping fixtures to meet customers individual testing requirements and parameters.
Fixtures for conducting Izod and Charpy tests are also available.

Test Results showing the impact events force distribution in Red and the Impact Energy evolution in Blue

The impact test result is presented in graphical and tabular forms within a fraction of a second of the impact event.  There is extensive automatic data analysis, as well as user controlled advanced analysis options. The precise calculations give results for time, force, velocity, displacement and energy in a a fully customisable view in which cursor points can be used to integrate attributes of the displayed graph.

Pneumatic clamp system for ISO 6603

Typical Strain Gauge tup

Tup loadcells are available in several capacities including 5kN, 12kN, 22kN and 45kN. Impact heads can be made to any test standard.

The configurability of the instrument makes it ideal for product development and quality control within production as well as for teaching institutions and in particular research and development labs, owing to the wide array of data available from each test run.

Unique Features

The Instrumented Falling Weight Impact Tester sets itself apart from the pack with a staggering 47 measurable parameters available per test run, with results appearing instantly on the customisable graphical display. With unique features such as auto-impact event detection (where the system automatically identifies the start and end of the impact event and displays the dataset from 0.5ms either side of those points exactly) and digitally displayed drop height control, usability is second to none.

Retrofits

Why not consider upgrading your existing Impact Tester with the Ray-Ran tupDAQ Impact Data Logger System and tupDAQ software? With backwards compatibility to Windows Vista, tupDAQ can turned old hardware into a state-of-the-art instrument.