Practical tests for the workshop

[kai987]

Hi all,

I'm looking for practical tests that you can perform in a workshop to test if a foam sandwich coupon is made properly - some kind of rough and ready quality control.

Been looking at ILSS and modified mode I fracture tests etc, but I wonder if I'm going overboard. The goal is to basically verify that contaminants haven't affected the final composite, given the many sources that they could come in... peel ply coating, breather, or even in FG sizing. Given that the major failure modes are typically delaminations, I thought some kind of shear/fracture test would be applicable...

Or is sending coupons off to the lab the only way?

Thanks
Kai

[kai987]

The drum test seems to be a good qualitative test.

Should say I'm not doing this in a commercial workshop... Does anyone have a diy rig setup to do a drum test, without buying an Instron?

Ta