High-speed tensile testing of extruded PC based polymers for cable ducts

Abstract

Previous tensile tests at 50, 100 and 400 mm/min using standard polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC/ABS) material qualities have led to the suspicion that strain at break decreases with increasing test speed. Here, the plastic deformation component is regarded as the main burr cause. Thus, higher process speeds during punching would lead to less burr formation. This thesis was proven by high-speed tensile tests with a self-developed test rig operating at a test speed of 36.000 mm/min. Both, pure standard materials, provided by a polymer granules supplier, and customized materials were investigated. The customized materials contain unknown additives generally used in industry, e.g. fillers. All samples were taken laterally from in-situ cable ducts. The remaining plastic strain was introduced as material parameter to compare the results of high-speed and conventional tensile tests. The investigations show that the remaining plastic strain which is understood as the major burr cause decreases with increasing test speed. Furthermore, the mean values of the remaining plastic strain of the individual materials converge when exposed to higher test speeds. This leads to the thesis that one tool configuration can be used for different polycarbonate (PC) based materials presumed the process speed is adjusted correctly.