Alternatives for Specimen Manufacturing in Tensile Testing of Steel Plates

摘要

Alternative processes to conventional machining are increasing in various fields. Both surface integrity and functional characteristics related to surface state, such as tensile strength, are influenced by the material removal process. In sheet metal forming and boilermaking, abrasive waterjet AWJ, wire electrodischarge machining WEDM, laser and punching could be used instead of the standardised milling process in order to obtain tensile specimens. This work aims at determining any effects on surface state and tensile test performance occurred as a result of manufacturing method, working with low-carbon steel as the study material. Results show that some changes on surface state appeared, but the effect on tensile strength was lower than 5 %. The use of alternative processes to milling presents two main advantages, it shortens the time needed to produce tensile test specimens, and the same technology finally applied in the final manufacturing step is used to prepare testing specimens. Tests were also performed on Inconel 718 to check those results in another metal alloy.