The application of hardness testing enables you to evaluate a material’s properties, such as strength, ductility and wear resistance, and so helps you determine whether a material or material treatment is suitable for the purpose you require.
The definition of hardness testing is ‘a test to determine the resistance a material exhibits to permanent deformation by penetration of another harder material.’ However, hardness is not a fundamental property of a material. Therefore, when drawing conclusions of a hardness test, you should always evaluate the quantitative value in relation to the given load on the indenter, the given load duration and the specific indenter geometry.
A hardness test is typically performed by pressing a specifically dimensioned and loaded object (indenter) into the surface of the material you are testing. The hardness is determined by measuring the depth of indenter penetration or by measuring the size of the impression left by an indenter.
Hardness tests that measure the depth of indenter penetration include: Rockwell, Instrumented Indentation Testing, and Ball Indentation Hardness. Hardness tests that measure the size of the impression left by the indenter include: Vickers, Knoop, and Brinell
Full evaluation of a material’s properties, such as strength, ductility and wear resistance.
Direct interpretation of results
