Bending Test of Contact Materials

Bend formability is an important material property which affects the design and quality of the stamping process of connectors. Depending on the test methods the results of bend tests could be very different and even the results of a certain test method show a big statistical spread. We are developing a bend test with automatic crack detection. The main results are, comparing with the test with manual visual crack detection, the much higher repeatability and reproducibility of the test. Both material suppliers and connector makers would benefit from the improvement of the reliability of bend test.