Polymeric materials are more and more commonly used in load bearing structural applications. Similar to other material classes, like metals or ceramics, the long term fracture behaviour of materials used in structures is of high importance. However, constant material development has led to problems, when trying to characterize differences in materials in a feasible way. For example, materials used for piping applications, such as polyethylene or polypropylene, have become too tough to be tested with well-established methods. Classical methods, such as the internal pipe pressure test, take up to 10.000 hours or approx. 13 months. Modern pipe grades usually pass this qualification without any problems. The tests are stopped afterwards without providing a differentiation between materials which would be necessary to further advance in material research. Therefore, the cyclic “cracked round bar” (CRB) test has been developed in Leoben over the last years. This fatigue test on round bar specimens with a circumferential notch shows excellent capabilities for quick material ranking. The test has already been standardized in an Austrian national standard, and is currently in the final stage of ISO standardisation for polyethylene pipe materials. However, the potential of this test has yet to be fully utilized. It has also shown promising results for a broad variety of different thermoplastic and elastomeric materials. So far, the test was successfully adapted also for polypropylene (PP), polybutylene (PB), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyoxymethylene (POM), hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (H-NBR) and is also under evaluation for polyamides (PA12).