An automatic thermo-mechanical testing apparatus for metal forming applications.

• Design and development of an automatic thermo-mechanical testing apparatus. • Three materials were tested at varying strain rates and temperatures. • The device was validated with Hopkinson bar experiments on S235JR steel. • Numerical simulations were performed to analyse the experimental observations. Dynamic testing of materials is necessary to model high-speed forming processes (e.g. hammer forging, blanking, forming, etc.) and crash/impact behaviour of structures, amongst others. The most common machines to perform medium to high-speed tests are the servo-hydraulic high-speed tensile and compression machines and the Hopkinson bars. The paper analyses the use of a newly-developed laboratory testing facility, named the Automatic Thermo-Mechanical Tester (ATMT). This testing machine is equipped with a pneumatically accelerated Direct Impact Drop Hammer (DIDH), a furnace and automatised robotic arm, capable of characterising materials at intermediate strain rates, ranging from 100 to 300 s−1 in combination with temperatures up to 1350 °C. The hammer has been designed and constructed to conduct a variety of material characterisation tests, such as, upsetting or plane strain compression tests as well as component tests for validation purposes. The DIDH allows testing standard compression specimens at average strain rates in the order of 100 s−1 that decrease progressively until the it is fully stopped. It is, in combination with universal testing machines and Hopkinson bar systems, particularly suitable for experimental validation of loading-rate dependant material models. Compression tests were conducted with different hammer impact velocities generating a variety of strain rates at varying temperatures on S235JR structural steel, OFHC copper and wrought Inconel 625 nickel-based superalloy to assess the potential of the novel apparatus. A detailed finite element numerical study of the system was performed to assess several aspects such as the effect of the specimen geometry or its capability as an intermediate testing device, simulating a simplified system and the full Direct Impact Drop Hammer apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]