HARDNESS

The resistance of a material is defined as it’s

resistance to permanent indentation
Good hardness generally means that the
material is resistance to scratch and wear
 BRINELL HARDNESS TEST : Brinell hardness test is widely used for
testing metals and non-metals of low to medium hardness…

HARDNESSTESTS

Hardness tests are

commonly used for ROCKWELL HARDNESS TEST : The Rockwell test is generally easier to
assessing material perform, and more accurate than other types of hardness testing
properties because they are methods . The Rockwell test method is used on all metals, except in
condition where the test metal structure or surface conditions would
quick and convenient
introduce too much variations…
VICKERS HARDNESS TEST : The Vickers test is often easier to use than other hardness tests since
the required calculations are independent of the size of the indenter, and the indenter can be used
for all materials irrespective of hardness. The basic principle, as with all common measures of
hardness, is to observe a material's ability to resist plastic deformation from a standard source.
The Vickers test can be used for all metals and has one of the widest scales among hardness tests.

KNOOP HARDNES TEST : A test for mechanical hardness used particularly for very brittle materials or
thin sheets, where only a small indentation may be made for testing purposes.
SCLEROSCOPE : The Scleroscope test consists of dropping a diamond tipped hammer, which falls inside a
glass tube under the force of its own weight from a fixed height, onto the test specimen. The Shore
Scleroscope measures hardness in terms of the elasticity of the material and the hardness number depends on
the height to which the hammer rebounds, the harder the material, the higher the rebound. Advantages of this
method are portability and non-marking of the test surface.

THE DUROMETER : The Durometer is a popular instrument for measuring the indentation hardness of
rubber and rubber-like materials. The most popular testers are the Model A used for measuring softer
materials and the Model D for harder materials.
The operation of the tester is quite simple. The material is subjected to a definite pressure applied by a
calibrated spring to an indenter that is either a cone or sphere and an indicating device measures the depth of
indentation.
 METALS : The Brinnel and Rockwell hardness tests were
developed at a time when metals were the primary
engineering materials.For most metals hardness is
closely related to strength.However, strength properties
in compression test are nearly same as those of tension
test,after allowances for changes in cross-sectional area
HARDNESS OF of the respective test specimens,so the correlation with

VARIOUS the tensile properties should also be good.

MATERIALS
CERAMICS : The Brinnel hardness test is not appropriate for ceramics
because the materials being tested are often harder than the indenter
ball.The Vickers and Knoop hardness tests are used to these harder materials.

POLYMERS : Polymers have the least hardness among all engineering

materials. The hardness of polymers are often measured by
the Rockwell or Shore (durometer) hardness methods. Both methods provide
an empirical hardness value, which do not necessarily correlate with other
physical properties