Impact testing is testing an object's ability to resist high-rate loading. Impact testing is effective for determining the energy absorbed in fracturing a test piece at high velocity. Most of us think of it as one object striking another object at a relatively high speed. Impact resistance is one of the most important properties for a part designer to consider, and without question, the most difficult to quantify. The impact resistance of a part is, in many applications, a critical measure of service life. More importantly these days, it involves the perplexing problem of product safety and liability. Impact testing, also known as the V-notch test, is a standardized high strain-rate test which determines the amount of energy absorbed by a material during fracture.

This absorbed energy is a measure of a given material's notch toughness and acts as a tool to study temperature-dependent ductile-brittle transition. impact testing is performed on instrumented machines capable of measuring less than 1ft.lb. to 300ft. lbs. at temperatures ranging from -320F to over 2000F.