Vickers Hardness Test of Curved Surfaces

Introduction

Vickers hardness is used as an index of the mechanical and physical properties of materials in a variety of fields, including quality control at production sites, research and development, and analysis. A distinctive feature of the Vickers hardness test is its simplicity. Among the many advantages of this method, the time required for one measurement is extremely short, and accurate measurement values can be obtained by personnel without special skills. Vickers hardness is calculated from the length of the diagonals of the indentation that remains when Vickers indenter is pressed onto the surface of a sample with an arbitrary test force and that force is then removed. When the sample surface is curved, it is necessary to measure the length of the diagonal of the indentation on the curved surface correctly. ISO 6507-1 and JIS Z 2244, which are standards for Vickers hardness measurement methods, provide methods for converting the apparent hardness when testing curved surfaces to the hardness of a plane surface by using a correction factor. In this test, we introduce an example of correction using a Shimadzu HMV-G series micro Vickers hardness tester as an example of a Vickers hardness test of curved surfaces.

October 26, 2020 GMT