This paper focuses on the need to continuously develop and modify test technologies in order to make new innovative plastic developments possible in the first place. Concrete examples from three fields of test technology are described. (1) Methods of fire testing for safety-related components that are used, for example, in the environment of batteries and electrical conductors. This part of the paper examines influences from material development (for example, the use of flame retardants) and the manufacturing process. (2) Methods of destructive mechanical testing to describe the product characteristics of components produced by different manufacturing processes. A particularly detailed consideration is given here to the influence of the manufacturing technology '3D printing / additive manufacturing'. Also presented are the technologies of the high-speed tear-resistance testing of injection-molded test specimens as a basis for vehicle crash simulations, and customized tensile tests for composite lightweight materials. (3) Methods of electrical testing for analyzing and validating new requirements made of polymer components in electrical applications (for example, greatly increased voltages and currents).
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