Welcome to topic 9 of this unit.

In this topic you’ll learn how to carry out The Shore scleroscope test and
measure the hardness of a material using the the Shore scleroscope

It’s estimated to take a total of 4 hours to cover the content.

Topic learning outcomes:
By the end of the topic the trainee should be able to:
 Describe how the Shore scleroscope test is carried out.
 Carry out shore scleroscope test
The Shore scleroscope
This is a small portable instrument which can be used for testing the
hardness of large components such as rolls, drop-forgings, dies, castings
and gears. Such components could not be placed on the table of one of
the more orthodox machines mentioned above. The scleroscope embodies a
small diamond-tipped 'tup', or hammer, of mass approximately 2.5g, which
is released so that it falls from a standard height of about 250 mm inside a
graduated glass tube placed on the test surface. The height of rebound is
taken as the hardness index and is measured on a graduated scale. The
scale of the rebound is arbitrarily chosen and consists on Shore units,
divided into 100 parts, which represent the average rebound from pure
hardened high-carbon steel. The scale is continued higher than 100 to
include metals having greater hardness.

Soft materials absorb more of the kinetic energy of the hammer, as they are
more easily penetrated by the diamond point, and so the height of rebound
is less. Conversely, a greater height of rebound is obtained from hard
materials.

In normal use the shore scleroscope test does not mark the material under
test. The Shore Scleroscope measures hardness in terms of the elasticity of
the material and the hardness number depends on the height to which the
hammer rebounds, the harder the material, the higher the rebound.
Advantages of this method are portability and non-marking of the test
surface