TITLE

Harness Testing of Metallic Materials

OBJECTIVES
 To understand what hardness is, and how it can be used to indicate some properties of metallic
materials by using the Rockwell scale.
 To be able to understand the correlation between hardness numbers and the properties of
materials.

INTRODUCTION
The Hardness Test is a measurement of the resistance of the material to indentation, which indicates its
strength. The harder the material, the greater the resistance to penetration. Hardness is directly related to
the mechanical properties of the material. Factors influencing hardness include microstructure, grain size,
strain hardening, etc.

There are 3 methods to test the hardness of the materials.

1. Rockwell Hardness Test
2. Brinell Hardness Test
3. Vickers Hardness test

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
(eg :- Brinell or Vickers ) cannot be compared with hardness values obtained by using Rockwell Hardness
Test. (Law 2001).
There are many types of indenters used to conduct hardness experiments. The type of indenter depends on
the test specimen used. Also the scale of the Rockwell Hardness test depends on the test specimen and the
indenter used during the experiment. Some of the indenters used for different test specimens are shown in
the following table (Table 1).
The indenter of Rockwell hardness tester which is usually a ball, pyramid, or cone, is usually made of
hardened steel, tungsten carbide, or diamond, a much harder material than the material being tested.

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Table 1

Scale Indenter type Preliminary Total Force N Typical Applications

symbol Force N (kgf) (kgf)
A Spheroeonical 98.07 (10) 588.4(60) Cemented carbides, thin steel,
diamond shallow case, hardened steel

B Ball-1588 98.07 (10) 980.7 (100) Copper alloys, soft steels,

mm(1/16 in.) aluminum alloys
C Spheroeobical 9807 (10) 1471 (150) Steel, hard cast iron, pearlitic
diamond malleable iron, titanium, deep case
hardened steel
(http://www.auto-met.com/Rockwell_hardness_tester/Rockwell_Scales.htm)

THEORY
The Rockwell hardness test method consists of indenting the test material with a diamond cone or hardened
steel ball indenter. The indenter is forced into the test material under a preliminary minor load 𝐹98 usually
10 kg. When equilibrium has been reached, an indicating device, which follows the movements of the
indenter and so responds to changes in depth of penetration of the indenter is set to a datum position. While
the preliminary minor load is still applied an additional major load is applied with resulting increase in
penetration. When equilibrium has again been reach, the additional major load is removed but the
preliminary minor load is still maintained. Removal of the additional major load allows a partial recovery,
so reducing the depth of penetration. The permanent increase in depth of penetration, resulting from the
application and removal of the additional major load is used to calculate the Rockwell hardness number.
The Rockwell hardness value is derived from the difference in the baseline and final depth measurements.
This distance is converted to a hardness number.

Test Method Illustration

A = Depth reached by indenter after application of preload (minor load)
B = Position of indenter during Total load, Minor plus Major loads
C = Final position reached by indenter after elastic recovery of sample material
D = Distance measurement taken representing difference between preload and major load position. This
distance is used to calculate the Rockwell Hardness Number.

(https://www.hardnesstesters.com/test-types/rockwell-hardness-testing)

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MATERIALS AND APPARATUS
 Rockwell Hardness Tester
 Hard steel specimen
 Diamond indenter

PROCEDURE
1. The specimen was placed on the vice.

2. An appropriate scale is chosen to be used.

3. The indenter was lowered until it just touches the specimen surface.

4. A minor load (F= 98N) is applied and zero reference position is established.

5. A major load is applied for a specified time period ( 10 seconds).

6. The major Load was removed leaving the minor load applied and indenter was raised from specimen surface.

7. The hardness value was computed.

8. The above steps were repeated for 5 times at different locations on the specimen and the average value was
computed.

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RESULTS

HRC value results :-

1st value 2nd value 3rd value 4th value 5th value AVG

87 98 82 62 75 80.8

For spheroconical diamond indenter:

HR = 100 – h/0.002
depth ‘h’ of hard steel specimen = 0.0384 mm

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CONCLUSION
This report includes a brief introduction about Rockwell Hardness test and also explained how the
test conducted and what the principal of the Rockwell Hardness test. Under the discussion the results which
were obtained the experiment are compared with the reference value. As well as the importance of the
hardness testing, the shortcomings of this testing method and what are the possible improvement actions
are discussed.

REFERENCES

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_scale
 https://aybu.edu.tr/muhendislik/makina/contents/files/HARDNESS%20TEST(1).pdf
 https://www.slideshare.net/MarwanShehata/report-on-hardness-test
 https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/tv-prod/documents%2F2647-
Final+hardness+test+report.pdf
 https://www.scribd.com/doc/168547658/Hardness-Test-Lab-Report-pdf
 https://www.struers.com/en/Knowledge/Hardness-testing
 https://www.hardnesstesters.com/test-types/rockwell-hardness-testing
 https://www.bergeng.com/blog/the-importance-of-a-hardness-test-in-materials-production/