Tensile Strength Test Rig

Tensile Strength Test Rig

4B Braime have one of the world’s largest range of bucket elevator components, leading the field in elevator bucket and elevator bolt design and manufacturing the highest quality forged conveyor chains and elevator belting.

Due to our existing relationship with Braime Components, and knowing how well we work together, 4B Braime approached us with a particularly special request.

They wanted us to supply a tensile strength test rig; a machine that applies tensile (pulling) force to a material and measures the response to stress.

It is one of the most common mechanical testing techniques and is used to determine how strong a material is and how much it can elongate, and also obtain a complete profile of its tensile properties.

4B Braime wanted us to create a rig to test the tensile strength of Forged Chain links up to a breaking load between 150kN to 1000kN, and ideally a system of interchangeable heads for different pin sizes.

They only required the value of the breaking load and didn’t need a system to show the gradual elongation.

They wanted a motion range: at the lowest point between the clamps it would be 90mm and 350mm at the highest.

We also needed to allow the machine to reduce pressure while operating safely, i.e. the testing still being contained in case the link breaks unexpectedly.

We designed the frame of the rig to be manufactured from heavy duty Aluminium profile with a steel bed plate.

Shatterproof dual skin polycarbonate guarding encapsulated the test area, and a spring assisted return hydraulic cylinder was applied with a 100 Ton capacity for the testing.

This was driven by a hydraulic pump with a 700 Bar (10,000PSI) maximum working pressure with a maximum flow rate of 0.8 litres per minute.

The Load cell was a Compression Diaphragm type with 100Te loading head, panel mounted display to indicate load and a calibration certificate.

The test fixture was manufactured to accommodate the load cell and the cylinder, and the setting utilised the method currently employed on their existing system with the addition of clamps.

An electrical cabinet housing a small PLC with mini HMI provided the operator functional control of the rig. We also provided an emergency stop and guard monitoring for safety purposes.

The machine took around 16 weeks in total from ordering to complete in our Deeside workshop, and was then shipped and commissioned to 4B Braimes site in Leeds.

If you want to see the tensile strength test rig in action, take a look at this video on our Instagram, showing a chain link being tested in our workshop and failing (it makes the cameraman jump every time).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxX2HacDnb7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link