Hardness Test of Plastic Materials (ISO/TS 19278:2019)

Introduction

In recent years, plastic materials have been used in diverse products in a wide range of fields, including not only automotive parts such as bumpers, but also daily commodities, packaging, sports products, and medical materials. An important feature of plastic is the fact that products with a wide range of hardness properties can be produced, from soft materials to hard products such as machine parts. Hardness testing is effective in both quality control and research and development because the mechanical properties and physical properties of plastic materials can be measured in a simple and easy manner. On the other hand, the following issues arise in Rockwell hardness tests of plastics. Due to the large force, correct measurements are not possible with small specimens and thin-film specimens, and when the thickness is less than 6 mm, different scales are used depending on the material, and simple comparison by numerical values of hardness is not possible. To address these issues, ISO/TS 19278 was issued in 2019 as a technique for measurement of the indentation hardness of plastics. Because specimens are measured at a low force, hardness testing of even small specimens and thin-film specimens is possible, and hardness is evaluated by the same scale irrespective of the type of material. This article introduces hardness testing conforming to the above-mentioned standard (ISO/TS 19278:2019) by the Shimadzu DUH^TM-210 Dynamic Ultra Micro Hardness Tester for plastics using representative plastic materials.

November 13, 2019 GMT