INTRODUCTION

• Hardness is the property of a material that enables it to

resist plastic deformation, usually by penetration.
However, the term hardness may also refer to resistance
to bending, scratching, abrasion or cutting.Hardness is not
an intrinsic material property dictated by precise
definitions in terms of fundamental units of mass, length
and time.

• A hardness property value is the result of a defined

measurement procedure.Hardness of materials has
probably long been assessed by resistance to scratching
or cutting. An example would be material B scratches
material C, but not material A.

• Alternatively, material A scratches material B slightly and

scratches material C heavily. Relative hardness of
minerals can be assessed by reference to the Mohs Scale
that ranks the ability of materials to resist scratching by
another material.

• Similar methods of relative hardness assessment are still

commonly used today. An example is the file test where a
file tempered to a desired hardness is rubbed on the test
material surface.

• If the file slides without biting or marking the surface, the

test material would be considered harder than the file. If
the file bites or marks the surface, the test material would
be considered softer than the file.
OBJECTIVE

• To study the hardness of different material.

• To understand the principles of Vickers hardness testing.

• To become familiar with hardness testing.

• To determine the hardness of steel and aluminum samples

and investigate how the values relate to heat treatment.
VICKERS HARDNESS

• The Vickers hardness test was developed in 1924 by Smith

and Sandland at Vickers Ltd as an alternative to
the Brinell method to measure the hardness of materials.
• The Vickers test is often easier to use than other
hardness tests since the required calculations are
independent of the size of the indenter, and the indenter
can be used for all materials irrespective of hardness. The
basic principle, as with all common measures of hardness,
is to observe the questioned material's ability to resist
plastic deformation from a standard source.
• The Vickers test can be used for all metalsand has one of
the widest scales among hardness tests. The unit of
hardness given by the test is known as the Vickers
Pyramid Number (HV) or Diamond Pyramid
Hardness (DPH). The hardness number can be converted
into units of pascals, but should not be confused with a
pressure, which also has units of pascals.
• The hardness number is determined by the load over the
surface area of the indentation and not the area normal to
the force, and is therefore not a pressure.
• The hardness number is not really a true property of the
material and is an empirical value that should be seen in
conjunction with the experimental methods and hardness
scale used. When doing the hardness tests the distance
 between indentations must be more than 2.5 indentation
diameters apart to avoid interaction between the work-
hardened regions.

If HV is expressed in SI units the yield strength of the material

can be approximated as:

where c is a constant determined by geometrical factors

usually ranging between 2 and 4.
ANALYSIS
 Determine the average hardness value by used the
formula.

 Convert to Rockwell by used the hardness conversation

table.

 Compare the result for different materials.

REFERENCES
 ASM metal`s handbook

 Mechanical testing of material, A.J fenner.