Mechanics 2 Assignment 9

Name: Wayne Carolan Group: 5a Student number: B00036914 28/04/2010

Experiment carried out with the following colleagues: Jason Gorman. Niall Connighan and Tony Cleary. Title: Hardness Test Purpose of experiment: The purpose of this experiment is to use a universal hardness tester which incorporates a direct electronic readout to determine the hardness values. Four blocks of metal where given and were to be tested to determine which was the hardest and by what means was this achieved. Results: Rockwell C Hardness value Predefined Heat treatment Temperature

Test Piece Labelled

Quenching medium used

Specimen material

63.06 N/A

Oil

Ground flat stock

64.9 N/A

Water

Ground flat stock

35.3 N/A

Compressed air

Ground flat stock

4 Specimen piece before quenching Specimen piece after quenching in water

13.96 N/A

None

Ground flat stock

14.8

14.8 N/A

Ground flat stock

65.4 Table 1

65.4 825

Ground flat stock

Sample Calculations: y Average Hardness value= value 1+ value 2+ value 3 3 e.g. 63.8+62.1+63.5/3=63.06

y y

%Error in measurement =accuracy of measurement/measurement itself x 100 Specimen piece before quenching Specimen piece after quenching = Difference in hardness .e.g. 65.40 14.8 = 50.6

Error: The main source of error with the Rockwell test is the strain hardening effect of the testing process, no recent calibration tests seemed to be present on the hardness tester. Calibration should be done regular. It was also noted that the four different blocks may not have been perfectly flat .The oven used to heat the metal was heated to 825, but the exact duration of the different blocks were unknown which may have caused discrepancy.

Discussion: The experiment was conducted successfully and all required results were obtained and recorded as can be seen in Table 1. It was found that the best method of achieving maximum hardness in ground flat stock steel was to quench it in water. Test piece number 4 was noticeably a much lesser value of the others indicating it had not been treated. Small errors in hardness value seem to have occurred. Conclusion: y The experiment was conducted satisfactorily taken all errors into account y I, the student now have a better understanding of the advantages of heating metals to maximise hardness y The results obtained agree with the theory of Rockwell values of that of engineers y By values obtained hardness increased as the cooling rate increased. y If I were to does this experiment again. It would be preferred to heat and quench the test pieces to support and verify results obtained.