Design, manufacture and test of a high temperature tensile and compression testing device

This paper describes the design and manufacture of a low-cost laboratory test device capable of testing metallic materials at elevated temperatures. The device, which consists of an environmental chamber, specimen gripping mechanism, and associated instrumentation, is fitted to a standard tensile-compression machine. Standard tensile test samples, notched specimens and compression test samples can be tested in the device at temperatures up to 1200oC. This paper describes the operation of the device and the results of a series of validation tests, on various metallic materials, carried out on the machine