TITLE

Hardness Testing of Metallic Materials

OBJECTIVE
To determine the hardness of metallic materials by using the Rockwell scale.
INTRODUCTION
Hardness is a qualitative trait in materials. The definition of Hardness is the resistance the material to
indentation. It can also be referred as the materials resistance to plastic deformation such as
bending, scratching, abrasion or cutting. Hardness is not a property that can be measured in
fundamental units of length, mass or time.
There are many tests available to test the hardness of materials. Some of the most popular tests are:
-

Rockwell Hardness Test

Brinell Hardness Test
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 (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.

Figure 1: Rockwell Hardness Testing Machine (Inc., 2014)

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

Rockwell Hardness Testing Machine

Test specimen

Figure 2: Sphero-conical diamond indenter (Co., 2000)

PROCEDURE

A flat bar of mild steel was chosen as the test specimen.

The crank of the Rockwell Testing machine was kept in the unload position.
A diamond sphero-conical indenter was used as the indenter.
The large pointer of the dial indicator was adjusted to coincide with the 0 position.
The test specimen was placed on the anvil and the anvil was raised so that the specimen came
in contact with the indicator.
The hand wheel was rotated so that the small pointer coincides with the red spot on the dial
indicator to obtain a preliminary load of 10kg.
Then the main load of 140kg was applied slowly using the lever. ( The loading time was 4s)
The load was applied for 5s and removed.
The reading on the dial indicator was recorded.
The minor load was removed.
This process was repeated for 5 times on one end of the specimen and 5 times more on the
other end of the specimen.

Figure 3: Indenter Depth vs. Time graph (Low, 2001)

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.

Table 3: Results of the Rockwell Hardness Test ((SLIIT), 2014)

Sample

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.