ISO 180 Determination of Izod Impact Strength

ISO 180 defines the method used for pendulums to determine the impact resistance of a plastic specimen when supported in a cantilever configuration. Test results are used to evaluate the resilience of materials, typically plastics. Often used in quality control applications as a fast and economical test, it is employed more comparatively than definitively. Different test parameters are specified in the standard according to the type of material that the specimen is made of as well as the type of notch cut in it. While similar to ASTM D256 (Izod Pendulum Impact Resistance of Plastics) the defined tests are significantly different and therefore are not interchangeable.

To meet the requirements of the standard we recommend our CEAST 9050 Pendulum – in either manual or motorized version, along with a specimen support vise, properly sized shoulders, and hammers. To get a full understanding of how the material will react to impact when exposed to sub-ambient temperatures we also recommend the inclusion of our Cryo Dispenser or Cryobox. Additionally, the application of an instrumented hammer in conjunction with our Data Acquisition System can help to identify and investigate failure modes and impact history.

Specimens to be tested may be either unnotched or notched. To ensure proper notched specimen preparation we suggest the use of either our Motorized Notchvis or Automatic notcher with the appropriate notching knife that meets the desired notch as defined in the test standard.

We recommend reviewing the test standard to fully understand the test set-up, procedure, results requirements as well as the specimen preparation requirements.