Impact & Bend Testers

The Impact Tester is a widely used device for the coating and plastic industries. In both industries impact resistance is measured by a falling weight from a controlled distance. For plastic materials the force is increased until structural failure occurs. In the case of a coated surface, failure will appear as a crack in the paint film. The impact tester creates a deformation in the surface that can also be used to measure a coating’s flexibility. BYK-Gardner offers a wide variety of models and accessories to comply with ASTM and ISO methods related to a resistance tester.

For a coating to perform properly during use, the paint must have the proper amount of flexibility to withstand cracking under stress. A common test is bending a coated panel over a cylindrical or conical shaped bar. A mandrel bender is commonly used to test for paint flexibility. A cupping tester is another coating flexibility tester that slowly pushes a round punch through a coated panel until cracking occurs in the paint film. The degree of bending or deformation of the coated surface is measured to assess the coating flexibility.