Hardness Testing of Metallic Materials
Hardness Testing of Metallic Materials
Hardness Testing of Metallic Materials
The testing method used in this experiment was Rockwell Hardness Test. The modern Rockwell
Hardness Testing machine is fully automated and therefore needs very little user input. Due to this
reason, this test is used in manufacturing production lines as a quality control test.
What this machine basically does is that it makes and indentation using a load on the surface of the
test specimen and measures the net indentation. Then it computes the indentation depth to the
Rockwell Hardness value which is measured in HRC. The values obtained by this test can be
compared with the hardness values of other specimens of different compositions. However, hardness
values obtained by different hardness tests (e.g. Brinell or Vickers) cannot be compared with
hardness values obtained by using Rockwell Hardness Test. (Low, 2001)
There are many types of indenters used to conduct hardness experiments. The type of indenter
depends on the test specimen used. Some of the indenters used for different test specimens are
shown in the following table.
Table 1: Types of indenters used in the Rockwell Hardness Test. ((SLIIT), 2014)
Also the scale of the Rockwell Hardness test depends on the test specimen and the indenter used
during the experiment.
THEORY
During the Rockwell Hardness test, a sphero-conical diamond indenter is used to make an
indentation on the test specimen. Firstly a test load of 10kg is applied to the test piece and then the
main load is applied and kept for some time before removed. The net indentation of the test
specimen is calculated by the machine and is converted to the respective Rockwell Hardness value
using the following equation:
Rockwell Hardness = 100 (h / 0.002); h is the net depth of the indentation
MATERIALS AND APPARATUS
PROCEDURE
Table 2: Scale and dial figures used during the Rockwell Hardness Test ((SLIIT), 2014)
CALCULATIONS:
The Rockwell hardness can be read
Rockwell Hardness = 100 h / 0.002; for conical diamond indenter
Rockwell Hardness = 130 h / 0.002; for ball indenter
RESULTS:
The following are the results of the Rockwell Hardness Test. The two ends of the chosen test
specimen had two different hardness values. The two ends are denoted as Sample A and Sample B.
1st Value
2nd Value
3rd Value
4th Value
5th Value
A
B
64 HRC
61 HRC
75 HRC
56 HRC
83.5 HRC
67 HRC
93.5 HRC
62 HRC
82 HRC
57.5 HRC
Average
Value
79.8 HRC
60.7 HRC
CONCLUSION
The Rockwell Hardness Test is an efficient, accurate and reliable test which can be used to get a
readd on the hardness value of materials. Since the modern Rockwell Hardness Testing machine is
fully automated and less time consuming, this test is capable of serving as a quality control test in a
wide variety of engineering applications.
REFERENCES
(SLIIT), S.L.I.o.I.T. (2014) 'Hardness Testing of Metallic Materials', August.
Co., M.I.S. (2000) Hardness Tester Accessories, [Online], Available:
http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/06534101 [August 2014].
Inc., M.&.L.T.E. (2014) Rockwell Hardness Tester, [Online], Available:
http://www.mltest.com/index.php/hardness-testing/rockwell-hardness-products/109-electronicrockwell-hardness-tester-shr-150e-d [August 2014].
Low, S.R. (2001) Rockwell Hardness Measurement of Metallic Materials, Washington, DC: National
Institute of Standards and Technology.