ASTM E345 – Tension Testing of Metallic Foil

ASTM E345: Standard Test Methods of Tension Testing of Metallic Foil

ASTM E345 is a tensile testing standard focused on metallic foil. It supports generating strength and elongation information from uniaxial tensile loading while acknowledging the practical challenges of testing very thin, easily damaged specimens.

Compared with more general metallic tensile standards, ASTM E345 includes allowances intended to improve practicality on foil—such as permitting thickness determination by weighing and permitting elongation determination from grip separation for some specimen conditions.

Quick definition

ASTM E345 is a set of standardized tensile (tension) test methods for metallic foil at room temperature, used to generate comparable tensile properties for material comparison, development, and quality control.

What This Standard Covers

ASTM E345 covers tensile testing of metallic foil at room temperature. The standard is written to support repeatable tensile strength and ductility evaluation when foils are too thin or too delicate for common thickness measurement and strain measurement techniques used on thicker specimens.

ASTM E345 also notes that exceptions may be necessary when a material specification or a product-specific method requires different handling or requirements.

Why This Standard Matters in Testing

Foil tensile data is often used for acceptance testing of shipments, quality control trending, and engineering comparisons across heats, lots, processing routes, and suppliers. ASTM E345 is intended to support consistent, comparable results when specimen thickness and handling make “standard” tensile approaches harder to execute without introducing damage or measurement error.

Because tensile results can be sensitive to specimen preparation, gripping, alignment, and strain measurement approach—especially in thin foil—edition matching and test setup discipline are important for meaningful comparisons.

Common Materials, Product Types, or Applications Covered

ASTM E345 is used for thin metallic foil products where tensile properties are required and where handling damage, gripping slip, or thickness/strain measurement uncertainty can drive variability.

Common examples: Rolled metallic foils used in industrial converting and forming processes, thin metallic strips/films used as functional layers or carriers, and other applications where the sample is thin enough that conventional contact-based measurement methods may be intrusive.

Common Test or Verification Workflow

A typical ASTM E345 tensile workflow follows the same overall logic as metallic tensile testing, with added emphasis on specimen protection and measurement choices that suit foil.

Common workflow steps:

• Prepare foil specimens with clean edges and minimal handling damage, and define the specimen geometry required by the cited edition.
• Determine specimen dimensions needed for stress calculations, using an approach appropriate for thin foil (including thickness determination by weighing when applicable and permitted).
• Mount the specimen using grips and inserts that minimize slippage and prevent tearing, kinking, or jaw damage.
• Run the tensile test at the required conditions and record force and extension/strain data using the measurement approach allowed by the standard and appropriate for the specimen.
• Calculate and report tensile properties (for example, strength values and elongation/ductility metrics) in the format required by the purchasing or material specification.

Equipment Commonly Used for This Standard

ASTM E345 is equipment-sensitive because foil specimens can be damaged during clamping and can produce relatively low forces. Equipment selection is typically driven by force range, gripping strategy, alignment control, and the strain measurement method required for the properties you must report.

Common equipment path: Universal testing machine sized for the expected low-force range (with an appropriately sized, well-calibrated load cell), grips suited to thin foil (often using compliant or protected jaw faces), and fixtures/accessories that improve alignment and reduce handling damage.

Thickness & strain measurement considerations: Depending on the cited edition and your reporting needs, you may use non-contact strain measurement to avoid damaging delicate foil, and you may use mass-based thickness determination where it improves accuracy or avoids deformation from contact measurement tools. If you are configuring a low-force tensile frame and grip package for foil, you can request a detailed quote for a setup matched to your force range, specimen width, and strain measurement needs.

How to Read This Designation or Revision

ASTM standards are commonly cited as the designation plus a year-based revision, for example “ASTM E345-24” or “ASTM E345-24a.” The year indicates the edition year being cited, and letter suffixes may appear when multiple updates occur within the same year.

Practical guidance: Always match your lab procedure, reporting template, and customer/specification requirements to the exact edition cited on the purchase order, drawing, or material specification—especially when thickness determination and elongation measurement approach are decision points.

Related Standards, Methods, or Frameworks

ASTM E345 is commonly discussed alongside broader metallic tensile testing standards. In particular, ASTM E345 contrasts with ASTM E8/E8M and ISO 6892-1 by allowing thickness determination by weighing and allowing elongation determination from grip separation for some foil conditions.

Many labs also control system performance using separate force-verification and metrology practices appropriate to their quality system, especially when working in low-force ranges where measurement resolution and alignment can strongly influence results.

Talk with a testing specialist about ASTM E345

If you need help selecting grips, load cell capacity, or a strain measurement approach that fits ASTM E345 and your foil type, talk with our team about your specimen dimensions, target properties, and throughput requirements.