German Jordanian University

School of Applied Technical Sciences

Department of Industrial Engineering
Materials Science Lab IE224

Experiment 4: Hardness Testing

Objectives

 Define and understand hardness.

 Became familiar with different hardness scales.
 Use hardness number to distinguish between given materials.

Background

In various industrial and daily applications, materials are subjected to forces that may cause
deformation. In these cases, it is important to define various materials' mechanical properties to
select a suitable one for the desired design. One of these properties is hardness. Hardness is the
measure of material's resistance to localized plastic deformation caused by penetration of the
surface by a hard object (indentation). There are three general types of hardness measures:

 Scratch Hardness: It measures the ability of material to scratch on one another. Scratch
hardness is important to mineralogist, but for metal it is not a suitable measure.

 Indentation Hardness: It measures the resistance of a sample to permanent plastic

deformation due to a constant compression load from a sharp object. Indentation hardness
is of great important engineering interest for metals.

 Rebound (or dynamic) Hardness: It measures the height of the bounce of a diamond-tipped
hammer dropped from a fixed height onto metal surface. This type of hardness is related
to elasticity.

Several methods have been developed to measure hardness of materials. Starting with an early
hardness system with scale based on the ability of one material to scratch other softer material.
Proposed scale system termed as Mohs scale, which ranged from 1 on the soft end for talc to 10
on the hard end for diamond. Other methods were developed based on indentation hardness, the
most common are three:
 Vickers Hardness Test
 Rockwell Hardness Test
 Brinell Hardness Test
 The Vickers Hardness Test

In Vickers hardness test, indentation is done with a diamond indenter, in the form of a pyramid
with a square base and an angle of 136 degrees between opposite faces, and applying a test load (
) of between 1gf and 100kg, Figure 1. The full load is normally applied for 10 to 15 seconds. The
two diagonals of the indentation left in the surface of the material after removal of the load are
measured using a microscope and their average calculated ( ). The area of the sloping surfaces of
the indentation is calculated. The Vickers hardness is the quotient obtained by dividing the load by
the square mm area of the indentation, and is given as:

Where the load ( ) for some common materials is:

Steel and cast iron 30 kg
copper alloys 10 kg
Pure copper, aluminum 5 kg
Lead, tin, tin alloys 1 kg

Figure 1: Vickers Hardness Test

The Vickers hardness can be reported like 800 HV/10, which means a Vickers hardness of
800, was obtained using a 10 kg test force. Several different loading settings give practically
identical hardness numbers on uniform material, which is much better than the arbitrary changing
of scale with the other hardness testing methods.

The advantages of the Vickers hardness test are that extremely accurate readings can be taken,
and just one type of indenter is used for all types of metals and surface treatments. The Vickers
method is capable of testing the softest and hardest of materials, under varying loads.

The Rockwell Hardness Test

Rockwell hardness test utilizes various indenters; diamond cone, or a ball of hardened steel
or tungsten carbide, and different loads values (See Figure 2). Different combinations ofindenter
type and major load defines Rockwell scales; A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and K. Each scale is suitable
for the testing of specific material.
 In Rockwell test the indenter is forced into the test material under a preliminary minor load
of 10 kg. When equilibrium has been reached, an additional major load, either 60, 100 or 150 kg
is applied with a resulting increase in penetration. Hardness number is determined by the
difference in depth of penetration resulting from the application of an initial minor load followed
by the larger major load. Rockwell hardness number reporting should indicate the hardness
number followed by HR and appropriate scale identification. For example, 60 HRB represents a
Rockwell hardness of 60 on B scale.

Rockwell test cannot be used to test very thin sheets and foils, so Rockwell superficial
hardness test is used. As in standard Rockwell test, various scales are defined; N, T, W, X, Y, and
Z. For superficial tests, minor load is 3 kg, major load is 15, 30 and 45 kg. Reporting hardness
number should indicate the used scale and major load. For example, 30 HR45N represents
superficial hardness of 30 on N scale with 45kg as a major load.

In any scale, if hardness number rise above 100 or drops below 20, then they became
inaccurate and another scale should be considered in testing.

The Brinell Hardness Test

In Brinell hardness test, material surface is indented surface with a tungsten carbide, or
hardened steel, ball by applying a test force ( ) of between 1 and 3000 kg. The indenter is 10 mm
in diameter ( D ) or it could be 1, 2.5, 5 or 10 mm. The full load is normally applied for 10 to 15
seconds in the case of iron and steel and for at least 30 seconds in the case of other metals. The
relationship between load and indenter diameter is given by:
Where: K is a constant related to the tested material.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.: Some Hardness Tests

 The diameter of the indentation left in the test material surface is measured, Figure 3. The
Brinell harness number is calculated by dividing the load applied by the surface area of the
indentation.

The diameter of the impression is the average of two diameter readings at right angles.
Modern electronic testers offer inbuilt measuring systems with either manual or computer assisted
automatic indentation measurement.

Figure 3: Brinell Indentation

A well structured Brinell hardness number reveals the test conditions, for example: "75 HB
10/500/30", means that a Brinell Hardness of 75 was obtained using a 10 mm diameter tungsten
carbide ball with a 500 kg test force for a period of 30 seconds.

When testing extremely hard metals the tungsten carbide ball indenter may not be suitable as
the Brinell scale is limited to materials with hardness values of approximately 500 HB. For such
materials the Rockwell and Vickers tests are more suitable. An accurate Brinell hardness values
will only be achieved if the indentation diameter is between 0.25 and 0.5D.

Accuracy of hardness test

For any indentation hardness test, specimen should be at least ten times thicker than the
indentation depth. Inaccurate results could be obtained if the specimen is thin, indentation is made
near specimen edges or close to another indentation made previously. Allowance should be made
for at least three indentation diameters between the center of one indentation and the specimen
edge, or to the center of a second indentation.

Correlation Between Hardness and Tensile Strength

Studies have showed that tensile strength and hardness are related, since both indicate
material's resistance to plastic deformation. It was found that Brinell hardness and tensile strength
are roughly proportional and related as:

Possible hardness conversion among different methods and scales could be made especially
for steels, as Figure 4 shows.
Figure 4: Hardness Conversion