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).
Tensile tests in the thickness direction or “Z tests” are performed to evaluate the mechanical properties of steel in the thickness direction of a plate. The test involves the application of tensile forces on a test sample, with the axis of the test sample perpendicular to the rolling direction of the steel plate. The primary purpose of the Z-test is to measure the resistance to lamellar cracking by determining the deformation properties perpendicular to the product surface.
Metallographic techniques are mainly used for the execution of the research projects, and for the support of material, damage and corrosion investigations.
You might want to consider a tailored test on a component or material? Let us know, the Belgian Welding Institute gladly invites you to discuss the needs and possible solutions.
