Flexural & Bend Testing Systems for Metal Testing

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Flexural & Bend Testing Systems for Metal Testing
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A bend test asks a simple question and gives a visible answer: will the material take the deformation without cracking. It is how welds, rebar, tube and sheet are qualified, and the result is read on the outer surface rather than off a curve. NextGen supplies bend and flexural systems for that work, to ASTM E290 and ISO 7438.

The system covers guided bend, three-point and four-point flexure, with rollers and formers sized to the specimen, and the loading speed is set and held so results stay comparable between operators and shifts. Machines are installed and calibrated on site, your team is trained on fixture setup, and support continues for the life of the equipment.

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What Bend Testing Measures

A bend test bends a specimen to a specified angle or around a former and then looks at the outer surface. The result is visual: cracking or surface irregularities show that the material cannot take the deformation, and the acceptance criteria are normally set by the product specification. It is how welds, rebar, tube and sheet are qualified, and it is a practical check of ductility and formability rather than a measurement of strength. A sheet that meets its tensile requirement can still crack when it is formed, which is why bend testing is run in addition to tensile testing.

Standards for Bend Testing

ASTM E290 describes several ways to bend a specimen and judges the result by cracking on the convex surface. ISO 7438 specifies the bend test for metallic products, and GB/T 232 is the Chinese national method. For sheet formability, GB/T 15825.5 covers bending tests, and VDA 238-100 covers the plate bending test that determines bending angle. ISO 7438 is typically used as a practical acceptance check, for example verifying bendability to a required angle or around a required former, rather than as a method for flexural properties. The standard cited by the product specification fixes the bend angle, the former diameter and the support spacing.

What Affects Bend Results

Mandrel radius, support roller diameter and spacing, and loading speed change how a specimen bends, so tooling is selected for the test method and the specimen thickness. Loading speed is set and held so that results stay comparable between operators and shifts. On the NG-FLX Series A, force and bending angle are measured in real time, which lets operators compare materials, thicknesses and production batches at specific bend angles.

Bend and Flexural Systems from NextGen

The NG-FLX Series A is an electromechanical sheet metal bend testing system for three-point bending, flattening and formability evaluation, in 20 kN, 50 kN and 100 kN reference configurations. It combines vertical loading with horizontal support movement, interchangeable mandrels, support rollers and U-bend tooling, and GenTest software handles operation and reporting. Vertical loading speed runs from 0.01 to 200 mm/min and force accuracy is within 0.5 percent of reading. For heavier flexural work on hydraulic frames, see the heavy-duty bending fixtures rated to 2000 kN.

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One partner to equip your complete metals laboratory

Flexural and bend testing is one station of a metals laboratory. NextGen equips the rest of it too, from tensile and impact testing to hardness, metallography and specimen preparation, and stays responsible for it after delivery.

  • Equipment, fixtures and software
  • Installation, training, calibration
  • Lifetime technical support

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FAQs

A bend test bends a metal specimen to a set angle or around a former and checks the outer surface for cracks, so it is a ductility and formability check. A flexural test loads a beam in three-point or four-point bending to measure flexural strength and modulus. Bend systems cover the first; bending fixtures on a universal testing machine cover the second.

Use a heavy-duty bending fixture on a servo-hydraulic machine. The NGA206A fixture is rated to 2000 kN, needs 480 mm of test space, ships with four mandrels of 32, 60, 88 and 160 mm diameter, and offers many more as options. It is built to GB/T 232, GB1499.1 and GB1499.2 for metals, composites and ceramics.

It can be configured for ASTM E290, ISO 7438, GB/T 232, GB/T 15825.5 and VDA 238-100. Which method applies depends on the specimen geometry, material, mandrel size, support roller spacing and how the bending angle is reported, and tooling and reporting are configured around the method you need.

The NG-FLX Series A is built in 20 kN, 50 kN and 100 kN reference configurations, with the same capacity available vertically and horizontally. It takes a specimen size range of 0.5 to 4 mm, for steel sheet, aluminum sheet and automotive sheet materials. Request a quote to match the capacity to your sheet.

Interchangeable mandrels from R0.8 to R4.8 are available for different bend radii, support rollers of 20 x 70 mm and 30 x 70 mm hold the specimen in three-point bending, and U-bend molds from 2.0 to 9.6 mm thick follow the mandrel diameter. Tooling is selected according to the test method and can be customized for the specimen geometry.