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Hi, is there a limit as to how big a tensile test specimen can be?  We occassionally tensile test some pipeline steels, and we pull them at full thickness.  Some of the samples have been very thick and have given us some problems pulling them and giving wrong results.   Is there a limit how big is too big to pull a tensile test, or is it solely based on the machine pulling the sample?  Is it fine to pull a specimen as long as it fits in the grips and within the load capacity of the machine? 

 Thanks,

David Hampton

UMR Dec 81 Met. Eng.