Device and method for clamping a test piece

A system for buckling testing of a test piece, comprising:

• a test bench;
• an upper clamping rail and a lower clamping rail for horizontally clamping an upper end and a lower end of the test piece mounted on the test bench;
• vertical left clamping edges and vertical right clamping edges for laterally supporting a right side and a left side of the test piece;
• wherein
• a segmented bearing is arranged on each of the upper clamping rail and the lower clamping rail, each segmented bearing comprising a plurality of pivotably movable bearing segments which can be individually pivoted out of a clamping plane;
• and wherein
• the bearing segments each comprise a bearing segment chuck.

A method for clamping a test piece for a buckling test, comprising:

• clamping a lower clamping rail to a lower machine chuck of a lower clamping head of a test bench;
• clamping an upper clamping rail to an upper machine chuck of an upper clamping head of the test bench;
• fastening bearing segments to the upper clamping rail and the lower clamping rail, wherein the bearing segments can be individually pivoted out of a clamping plane;
• fastening rear lateral clamping edges to the upper clamping rail;
• inserting the test piece and clamping the test piece in the bearing segments of the lower clamping rail by means of lower bearing segment chucks;
• fastening front lateral clamping edges to the upper clamping rail such that the test piece is arranged between the front and the rear clamping edges;
• and
• lowering the upper clamping head and inserting a groove-pin system for movably fastening the clamping edges to the lower clamping rail.