The change to climate-neutral mobility and the associated transformation of the automotive industry are resulting in a variety of new requirements for the entire industry. The use of hydrogen as an energy source is becoming increasingly relevant. In addition to basic framework conditions, such as the necessary infrastructure, the main question in materials science is the hydrogen compatibility of materials.

The possibility of hydrogen embrittlement must be examined in sometimes complex test procedures. The common standardized test methods for detecting hydrogen embrittlement usually last several hours or even days. Instead of testing hydrogen pre-loaded samples, it can be necessary to do the tests in hydrogen-containing environment to avoid hydrogen effusion during such long testing time. Finally, such tests lead to a high time and cost effort.

In this paper it is shown that using the Erichsen test according DIN EN ISO 20482, which initially was created for formability characterization of flat material, it is possible to obtain an assessment of the embrittlement behavior of sheet metal materials by hydrogen. The advantage is to obtain results within a short period of time and testing of hydrogen pre-charged samples is possible without appreciable effusion of hydrogen during the test. Hence, this test is time and cost efficient.

For this purpose, samples of stainless steel were electrolytically charged with hydrogen, the hydrogen content in material was determined and they were tested immediately. The findings were compared with results from a slow strain rate test and supplemented by fractographic studies.