The Belgian Welding Institute (BWI) has the equipment and expertise to perform a wide array of material characterisation tests. Generally, the welded or base material test specimen(s) will be tested until fracture occurs and the specific material properties can be obtained and verified.
Expertise
The BWI has several testing machines with a range up to 2500 kN. Different standards tensile tests can be tested according to the applicable test standard at low-, elevated- or room temperature. Furthermore, it is also possible to perform special tensile and/or compression tests on non-standardized products and a test set-up as specified by the customer.
At the Belgian Welding Institute, 3-point bend testing can be performed. During testing, the outer fibre of the test specimen will be subjected up to a pre-determined percentage of elongation. This technique is often used to assure the proper quality of welded joints. After testing, the welded joint is inspected and all found welding imperfections can be measured and reported.
Impact tests are performed in order to determine the toughness, i.e. the deformation capacity of a metallic material under impact loading (energy absorption) at a specified test temperature. At the Belgian Welding Institute, impact tests can be performed from -196°C up to room temperature. This test is used for quality tests of base and welded materials, it allows the assessment of the fracture behaviour under specified load conditions.
Fracture toughness tests are worldwide used in engineering applications in order to verify the material resistance against the presence of a sharp crack. The Belgian Welding Institute is able to perform multiple fracture toughness test according to the current ASTM, British Standard (BS) and ISO standard testing methods as input for a engineering crital assessment (Fitness for service, fitness for purpose) or to verify a minimum required fracture toughness property (e.g. CTOD value larger than 0,15 mm).
