Objective

1. To analysis the hardness number of the material using the Vickers,

Rockwell, and Brinell Hardness Test.

2. To study the hardness of different material.

3. To understand the principles of hardness testing.

Apparatus
I. Vickers Hardness Test instrument, a rod of mild steel and a rod of

carbonate steel.

II. Rockwell Hardness Test instrument, a rod of round shaped ASSAB

steel with a center hole and a rod of carbonate steel without a center

hole.

III. Brinell Hardness Test instrument, a rod of mild steel and a rod of

carbonate steel.

Introduction
The Hardness Test is a measurement of the resistance of the material to

indentation, which indicates its strength. The indenter can be either

rounded or pointed and is made of a material much harder than the test

piece, for example hardened steel and diamond.

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

PART A
Vickers Hardness Test

 Two techniques to test the hardness of a material are Knoop Test

(called nup) and Vickers Test (also known as diamond pyramid). For

each test, small diamond with pyramid geometry is used to indent the

material surface.

 The force used is much lighter than the force used in Rockwell and

Brinell test.

 The preparation of the specimen must be correct, to insure the

measurement of the indent is exact.

 Knoop and Vickers Hardness Number are fixed which is HK and HV

and the scale of both techniques are almost alike.

 Both techniques refer to the micro hardness methods based on the

force and the measurement of the indent.

 Both are suitable to measure small value hardness of the selected

specimen, especially Knoop, which is used to measure brittle materials

such as ceramic.

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 Brinell Hardness Test

 Brinell test uses the force of a sphere shaped indenter on the

specimen surface, just like the Rockwell Test.

 To test the hardness of a steel (or carbide tungsten), the diameter of

the indentation used is 10.00mm(0.394 in.).

 Harder material requires more force.

 Brinell Hardness Number, HB serves as both function, as the diameter

and the magnitude, which is the final result of an indentation.

 The force for each magnitude produced with the standard force

between 500 and 3000 kg where the incensement of 500 kg in the

test, follows a specified time (between 10 and 30 seconds).

Rockwell Hardness Test

 The most routinely used technique to measure the hardness of a

material because of its simplicity and doesn’t require specific skills.

 A few scales can be used from few possibility different techniques

that are used widely for many types of steel and alloy, from the soft

materials to a more hard material.

 The Rockwell scale is known as HR, and its followed by a suitable

identity. Example, 80HRB refers to the B scale of the Rockwell

Hardness with the value of 80 and 60HR30W refers to the Rockwell

Hardness of the value of 60 in the 30W scale.

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 The table below shows the values of the steel sphere used :

Steel sphere Load (kgf)

center point Cast irons and Copper and Aluminum Titanium and
(mm) steel Cu-Al alloys other alloys
P/D2 =30 D/D2 = 10 P/D2 = 5 P/D2 = 1
1 30 10 5 1
2 120 40 20 4
5 750 250 125 25
10 3000 1000 500 100

Method

PART A

a) Vickers Hardness Test (BS 427:1961)

1) The specimen (carbonate steel) is correctly place on anvil of the

Vickers Hardness instrument.

2) The specimen is being focused and changed it below the

indenter exactly.

3) The ‘START’ button is pressed and the machine will shine with

the sound showed that the machine is readily operated.

4) When the ‘START’ light goes off, the indenter is assured that

it doesn’t touches the specimen’s surface.

5) Change the indenter with the lens.

6) The width of the corner is measured and noted.

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 7) Step 1-6 is repeated for the other area of the steel and for

the mild steel.

b ) Rockwell Hardness Test

1)The specimen is correctly placed on the anvil of the Rockwell Hardness

instrument.

2)The base of the instrument is slowly rotated the LED will started to move

until it reaches ‘SET’.

3)The test is automatically started.

4)The reading is taken after ‘TI’

5)Step 1-4 is repeated for the other area of the steel

c ) Brinell Hardness Test

1)The mild steel was placed correctly on the anvil of the instrument.

2)The base of the instrument is slowly rotated until the specimen touches

the indenter.

3)The right holder of the machine is adjusted until it reaches the 1000kgf

load and wait until 15 minutes.

4)The holder is moved forward again.

5)The base is anti-clockwise rotated.

6)The specimen is removed, and the reading is taken by using the

microscope.

7)Step 1-4 is repeated for carbonate steel.

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RESULTS
PART A
a) Vickers Hardness Test

Carbonate steel

Readings d1(μm) d2(μm) VHN

1 332.7 304.4 183
2 306.5 301.7 200
3 305.5 315.3 192.0
Average 191.7

Mild steel

Readings d1(μm) d2 (μm) VHN

1 370.0 363.3 138.0
2 373.5 361.3 137.0
3 370.2 361.8 138.0
Average 137.7

b) Rockwell Hardness Test

ASSAB steel

Readings Rockwell Hardness Number

1 26.6
2 26.7
3 27.0
Average 26.8

Carbonate Steel

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 Readings Rockwell Hardness Number
1 24.1
2 24.9
3 25.0
Average 24.7

c ) Brinell Hardness Test

Load (1000kgf)

Mild steel

Readings Center line for the notch Brinnel Hardness Test

part d (mm) number (BHN)
1 3.25 117
2 3.20 121
3 3.20 121
Average 119.7

Carbonate Steel

Readings Center line for the notch Brinell Hardness Test

part d (mm) Number (BHN)
1 2.80 159
2 2.85 154
3 2.80 159
Average 157.3

CALCULATIONS

a) Vickers Hardness Test

Vickers Hardness Number (VHN) is defined as:

VHN= Load impacted where: P= load impacted

Surfaces area d= dı + d2
2
= 2P sin 136/2

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 d²

= 1.854 F/d² (less then)

b) Rockwell Hardness Test

Rockwell Hardness Test (RHT) is defined as:

HRC= 100- d where: the depth of the indent

0.002

c) Brinell Hardness Test

Brinell Hardness Number is defined as:

BHN= Load impacted

Surface area of sphere indenter

= P
D/2 (D- √D² - d² )

= P
πDh

Where: P = Load impacted (kgf)

D = Sphere center point (mm)
d = Indenter center line (mm)
H = Indenter depth (mm)

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DISCUSSION
PART A
1) Knowing that the Vickers Hardness test and the Brinell Hardness test

were using both mild steel and carbonate steel while the Rockwell

Hardness test used both ASSAB steel and high quality of carbonate

steel.

2) The values of the BHN and VHN are much higher for carbonate steel

compared to the values of mild steel.

3) The value of Rockwell Hardness Number is higher for the ASSAB

steel than the value of the high quality of carbonate steel.

4) However, the value of the center line of the indenter for mild steel

are much higher compared to the carbonate steel in the Vickers and

Brinell hardness test.

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ERRATUM
PART A
1) The imperfect surfaces of each steel such as rusty surface.

2) Steel’s surfaces have lots of small indentation that result in only

small area left for new indentation.

3) Position of the specimen not exactly localize as wanted.

CONCLUSION
PART A

The ASSAB steel is the hardest steel, followed by carbonate steel and

lastly the mild steel.

REFFENCES
1) Submodul of Engineering Material ‘Material Testing’.

2) www.scribd.com - hardness testing.

3) www.wikipedia.com – definition hardness.

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4) www.google.com – images of hardness.

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