Hardness Testing of Metallic Materials

ROCKWELL
HARDNESS
TEST
 Table of content

1. INTRODUCTION
2. OBJECTIVE
3. THEORY
4. PROCEDURE
5. DATA ANALYSIS
6. RESULT DISCUSSION
7. CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Metals have its own properties including physical, mechanical, and thermal characteristic. The most
important properties are the mechanical properties, which is including ductility, hardness, strength, and
toughness. The mechanical properties are the measurements that used as a reference for material
selection. To know the mechanical properties of metals, it needs material testing.
Objective
1. To determine the hardness of various engineering materials using Rockwell hardness test.

2. To develop an understanding of suitable scale for hardness test specimens.

Theory
Hardness is a measure of the resistance of a metal to permanent (plastic) deformation. The hardness of
the metal is measured by loading an indenter into its surface. The indenter material which is usually a
ball, pyramid, or cone, is made of a material much harder than the material being tested. For most
standard hardness tests a known load is applied slowly by  pressing the indenter at 90 degrees into the
metal surface being tested. After the indentation has been made, the indenter is withdrawn from the
surface. An empirical hardness number is then calculated or read off a dial (or digital display), which is
based on the cross-sectional area of depth of the indentation.

Procedure
1. The specimen should be in appropriate shape to be fixed on the vice of the tester.
2. An appropriate scale is chosen to be used.
3. The indenter moves down into position on the part surface.
4. Aminor load is applied and a zero referenceposition on the part surface.
5. The major load is applied for a specified time period.
6. The major load is released leaving the minor load applied.
7. The measurement is taken.
Data analysis

◊ In this test we use 4 (four) specimens and we take their data for three (3) times for each
materials (specimens).
The materials are:-
1, ALUMINUM
2, CUPPER
3, BRASS
4, STEEL
I, Aluminum
We make test three times for this material and we get d/f results but this results are not far
from each other they are precise to each other. Then finally we take the average of the three
data’s.
THE DATA’S ARE:-
1, 83
2, 83.6
3, 83.6
83 + 83.6 + 83.6 / 3 = 83.4
II, Copper
Brass is the other material for brass we do the same
THE DATA’S ARE:-
1, 79
2, 78.5
3, 80
Then we take the average value
79 + 78.5 + 80 / 3 = 79.2
III, Steel
The last material that we test is cupper we take three d/f data’s and this data’s are precise to
each other as the previous ones.
THE DATAS ARE:-
1, 91
2, 91.9
3, 91.9
Then we take the average value of this data’s = 91 + 91.9 + 91.9 / 3 = 91.6
Result discussion
When we made this test we use 4 different materials aluminum ,copper , steel, brass and by
making the test three times for each material and take their average value in final result in
order to make the testing results accurate .and for a single material the data are very precise to
each other . We can say that for all of the materials that we use in this Rockwell hardness test.
Aluminum Copper Steel
Test 1 83 79.2 91.3
Test 2 83.5 78.9 91.6
Test 3 83.2 79 91.2
Total 249.7 237.1 274.1
Average 83.23 79.O3 91.37

Conclusion:
Overall, we found in this lab that using the hardness number or rating of a material was a
poor method of identifying the material tested. Discrepancies between different testing
methodsand scale conversions, along with the indistinctive nature of the hardness values,
preventhardness form being a distinguishing property. However, we did determine the likely
identitiesof the unknown samples we tested. In order to obtain more specific results, more
testing wouldhave to be preformed.