HARDNESS TESTING OF MATERIAL

Submitted by:

Name Tehman Saleem Syeda Rumesa Ali Muhamad Hannan

Reg No. 220101043 220101053 220101021

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

INSTITUTE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY
ISLAMABAD
OBJECTIVES
1) To conduct typical engineering hardness tests and be able to recognize commonly used
hardness scales and numbers, and to learn the common hardness test methods.
2) To determine the Brinell hardness of various materials such as (Steel, Brass and Aluminum)

APPARATUS

MT3024 Hardness Tester

(7) Colored segment on dial face

(6) Large pointer

(5) Small pointer and dot

Penetrator
Specimen

Anvil, moves up or down

When wheel (1) is turned

(1) Wheel

(2) Knurled collar

(3) Trip lever, when depressed

the major load is applied.

(4) Crank, to released major load

INTRODUCTION
Hardness is the property of a material that enables to resist plastic deformation, usually by
penetration. However, the term hardness may also refer to resistance to bending, scratching,
abrasion or cutting.
Hardness is not an intrinsic material property dictated by precise definitions in terms of
fundamental units of mass, length, and time. A hardness value is obtained because of a defined
measurement procedure.
Hardness of materials has probably been assessed by resistance to scratching or cutting. An
example would be material B scratches material C, but not material A. Alternatively, material A
scratches material B slightly and scratches material C heavily. Relative hardness of minerals can
be assessed by reference to the Mohs scale that ranks the ability of materials to resist scratching
by another material. Similar methods of relative hardness assessment are still commonly used
today. An example is the file test where a file tempered to a desired hardness is rubbed on the test
material surface. If the file slides without biting or marking the surface, the test material would be
considered harder than the file. If the file bites or marks the surface, the test material would be
considered softer than the file. The above relative hardness tests are limited in practical use and do
not provide accurate numeric data or scales particularly for modern metals and materials. The usual
method to achieve a hardness value is to measure the depth or area of an indentation left by an
indentation of a specific shape, with a specific force applied for a specific time. There are three
principal standard test methods for expressing the relationship between hardness and the size of
the impression, these being Brinell, Vickers, and Rockwell. For practical and calibration reasons,
each of these methods is divided into a range of scales, defined by a combination of applied load
and indenter geometry.

a) Brinell Test
A steel ball of diameter (2.5510) mm is pressed into the surface of the material under a pressure
of 1.25-30 KN. The load is sustained for a certain period of time, depending on the material. The
Brinell hardness (HB) is taken from tables of indentation diameters. HB is defined as load divided
by the spherical indentation area.
The reading accuracy is highest if the diameter of the indentation is 0.2-0.5 times the diameter of
the ball. The constant should be slightly higher for harder materials. The hardness of the material
also governs the applied load. The Brinell test can be done on soft and half hard materials.
See the Hardness Table 1.
Table 1: Ball sizes and loads for Brinell tests.
Ball Load in kp (kgs)
diameter
30 D2 10 D2 5 D2 2.5 D2 D2
D mm
10 3000 1000 500 250 100
5 750 250 125 62.5 25
2.5 187.5 62.5 31.25 15.6 6.25
2 120 40 20 10 4
1 30 10 5 2.5 1
Hard copper, Soft copper,
Use for Iron, steel Softer metals
copper alloy aluminum

APPLICATIONS
1. Quality control for metal heat treatment
2. Incoming material inspection
3. Welding evaluations in steels and other alloys.
4. Grade verification for hard plastics.
5. Failure analysis
PROCEDURE
a. Select the right combination of load and penetrator and install them into the durometer.
b. Make certain that the hand crank (4) is in the lowered position.
c. Place the specimen on the anvil.
d. Slowly turn the wheel (1) clockwise, to raise the anvil towards the indenter (penetrator).
e. After contact is gently made, continue raising sample until small pointer (5) is about in line
with small red dot, marked at 10. The minor load has now been applied to the specimen.
f. Turn the dial to align the larger dial indicator to zero of the larger scale.
g. Depress the trip lever (3) (or release button). This triggers the mechanism that applies the major
load. The hand crank (4) will rotate (anti-clockwise when viewed from the side).
h. After the hand crank (4) has come to rest, gently push to rotate and bring it to its original
position.
i. Now record the scale reading of large pointer (6) on the dial indicator. The outer black scale is
read for the diamond penetrator, and the inner red scale is for ball penetrators. Dial indicator
readings should be made for Rockwell testing only.
j. Remove the minor load, which remains on the specimen, by lowering the anvil by turning the
wheel (1) anti-clockwise.

CALCULATIONS

Table 5: Data obtained during the experimental readings

Test Rockwell ‘C’
Sample Brass
Indenter Diamond
Indenter dia/in Cone 120◦
Load-kgf 150

0.9mm
Dial readings 0.9mm

Average dial values 0.9mm

Scale used Outer black scale
Formula:
𝑭
H = 𝑫𝟐 (1.8544)
150
H = (0.0009)2 (1.8544)
H = 343.4 MPa

OBSERVATIONS
Hardness is the measure of resistance to penetration. This is the principle of testing of hardness of
materials through indentation technique. The specimen is invaded by the indenter used and hence
its hardness is determined. Here are some specimens shown which have indentation marks on it.

SOURCE OF ERRORS
a. Parallel error while taking readings from the Durometer dial indicator.
b. Indentations applied are too close to each other or to the edges of the specimen.
c. Specimen sample used is too thin.
d. Dirt, dust, grease, etc. on specimen surface.
e. Specimen surface defects, e.g. ‘dips’ and ‘bumps.
f. Application of vibrations to the Durometer while the load is being applied to the specimen.

CONCLUSIONS
The Brinell hardness method is based on the penetration methods. Testing is typically performed
on flat or cylindrical samples. Cutting and/or machining are often required to obtain suitable test
specimens from complex shaped components. Smooth parallel surfaces, free of coatings, scale,
and gross contamination, are required for testing.

REFERENCES
1. Handouts and Manuals of Machine/Apparatus
2. www.terco.se
3. Foundation of Material Science and Engineering – 4th Ed- William F. Smith
4. Workshop Technology (Manufacturing Process) – 6th Ed- R.S Khurmi, J.K. Gupta
5. http://www.hardnesstesters.com/problems-in-rockwell-testing.pdf
6. http://www.fuelinstrument.com/rockwell_hardness_testing_machine.html
7. http://www.globalspec.com/reference/18140/Principle-of-Rockwell-Hardness-Testing
8. http://www.gordonengland.co.uk/hardness/