Materials Development through Creep Tests up to 1,600°C with the Kappa Series from ZwickRoell at the Institute of Physics of Materials (IPM)

In particular, the three research groups “Advanced High-temperature Materials”, "Brittle Fracture" and “Advanced Metallic Materials and Metal Based Composites” are concerned with investigating the high-temperature resistance during creep and fracture testing. Therefore, there are nearly 40 creep testing machines from various manufacturers in IPMs laboratories. The three ZwickRoell creep testing machines from the Kappa LA and Kappa SS-CF series, all equipped with vacuum chambers, cover the complex creep and fractrure tests with test temperatures up to 1,600°C in an inert gas atmosphere or vacuum.

The high demands that are placed on the material are reflected in the demands of the materials testing systems. With the procurement of each individual testing machine for expanded creep and fracture tests up to 1,600°C, IPM was required to make an open bid invitation. ZwickRoell won in the end, not only due to the positive experiences that IPM already had using ZwickRoell materials testing machines, but also due to the technical specifications when compared to the competition.

At the same time, reaching the required temperatures up to 1,600 °C in an argon inert gas atmosphere within a vacuum chamber played a large role in winning the bid, as did the precise and constant temperature, force, and strain control as well as standard-compliant axial alignment.

Due to being equipped with the respective high-temperature resistant tools, tensile as well as compression tests can be performed with the ZwickRoell creep testing machines. The ease with which tools can be changed and the interchangeability between the testing machines provide IPM another benefit. Using a high-temperature resistant extensometer, the strains are measured directly on the specimen with a resolution of 0.1 µm.