Hardness is the property of a material to resist plastic deformation against penetration. Measurement of hardness is called Hardness Testing.

Types of Hardness Testing: Hardness Testing (1) (2) (3) Approximate Accurate and Productive Super Accurate Hardness Type Hardness Hardness Testing Testing Testing (1) Approximate Hardness Testing Methods: a) Very rough idea By Sound b) Approximate Idea File Hardness Test for Hardened metals and case hardened items c) Nearly Accurate Poldi Hardness Testing for items having no more hardness Than 450 HB d) Nearly Accurate Ball rebound Hardness Tester for items having high hardness. Poldi Hardness Testing Parts of the instrument: a) Body (steel body) with plunger, magnifying glass (Lens) and scale fitted b) Standard Test Pieces (with known hardness) c) Other items: hammer 1.5 or 2 Kg., piece for testing (Smooth ground, at least some area in one plane) Procedure: Testing piece is being placed on any rigid support and standard test piece is being fixed in the groove made for it. Plunger of the tester is struck by the hammer in an exactly vertical direction. The steel ball will leave its impression on the standard piece and also on the test piece. Let the hardness of the test piece (already known) be = Hs. the dia of the impression made by the ball on the Standard test piece be =Ds and the dia. Of impression made by the ball on the actual test piece be = Da.

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Then the hardness of the actual test piece Ha =

Hs x (Ds/Da)2.

In actual practice, some calculated charts are provided alongwiht the instrument. With the help of such charts the hardness value can be noted by measuring only the diameter of the impressions made by the ball on the standard and the actual test pieces. With these instruments we can check big casting and other objects which can not be adjusted properly on the testing table of other harness testers. (2) Accurate Hardness Testing called Rockwell Hardness Testing

This is a very quick and productive type method of hardness testing and has wide ranges of scales according to the different values of loads used for different purposes. In this method, the following type of scales are used. HRA, HRB, HRD, HRE, HRF, HRG, HRH, HRK, HRN and HRT Out of which only some are more popular. In this method a dial is directly calibrated in terms of hardness. 0.002 mm depth of penetration will be equal to a unit of hardness in that particular scale (for particular loads).

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Ha h3 = Elastic Deformation H3 h1 = Plastic Deformation Hardness = K- (h3 h1) C K = Constant For bralle (diamond core, K = 0.2 For ball 1/16 K = 0.26 C = Value of scale Division = 0.002 Thus hardness = K- (h3-h1) 0.002 Depth of penetration is inversely proportional to the hardness of the materials. (a) Accurate Hardness Testing of the Soft Materials Hardness in Rockwell B Scale (HRB) In this method 1/16 steel ball is being used as a penetrator. 10 kg. minor load is applied and 90 kg additional load is being used. Hardness can be directly measured in dial indicator. This is the limitation that by this method only those materials can be checked which have hardness below 20 HRC. For very thin and soft materials we can use T scales in which minor load is 5 kg. and additional load are 10,25,40 kg. (b) Accurate Hardness Testing of materials which have Hardness Rockwell Hardness testing C Scale By this method, we can check the hardness of the materials accurately which have hardness of more than 20 HRC. Materials having hardness less than 20 HRC are not advisable to check by this method. In this method, 1200 angled brale is being used as a penetrator. At the tip of brale 0.2 mm radius diamond is fixed.

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PENETRATOR FOR ROCKWELL HARDNESS TESTIN.

For testing for hardened tool materials and deeply case hardened materials 10 Kg minor and 140 kg additional load is applied. For thin sheets or thin case hardened materials a scale is being used in which minor load is 10 Kg. and additional load is 50 Kg. for very much thinner hard sheets and thinner case carburized materials. We can use N scales, in which minor load is 5 Kg and additional loads are 10, 25 and 40 Kg respectively. A, B and C scales are widely used. Below 50 HRC 1.5 HRC and above 50 HRC 2 HRC is admissible. Correction table is available for round items as per dia. (3) Super Accurate Hardness Testing (4) uper Accurate Hardness Testing To measure the hardness by this method we have to get the surface area of the impression made by indentors, which can be measured very accurately. That is why this method of hardness testing is called Super Accurate Hardness Testing. (a) Hardness Testing of materials having low or medium hardness (Brinell Hardness Testing) The test is more suitable for the materials having hardness less than 450 BHN (just like for castings, hot rolled, normalized and annealed steel, temper hardened steel, Cu, Al and other alloys.)

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In this method, steel balls of different diameters are being used as indentors. Generally 10,5 and 2.5 mm balls are used which depends upon the thickness of the material. Selection of load is dependent upon the materials: 30 d2 for steel and cast iron 10 d2 for copper and its alloys 5 d2 for a1 and its alloys 2.5d2 for soft (white) metals, bimetals. After applying the above calculated weights the ball will make its impression on the testing materials. Harness of the ball should be 1.7 times than the hardness of the materials which are to be tested. After removing the load, we can calculated the value of hardness: Hardness of the material (BHN) = Applied load in kg Area of the impression in mm2 Load (P) D (D-D2-d2)

2 load D (D-1 (D2-d2) Where D = diameter of the ball used as a penetrator d = diameter of the impression made by the ball. In usual practice, a calculated chart is being provided along with the hardness tester. With the help of that of that chart we can get the hardness by simple nothing the diameter of impression made by the ball used the items for testing; there is no need for calculation.

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(B) Super accurate Hardness Testing of materials having higher hardness Vickers Hardness Testing This type of testing is used for materials which have high hardness. A correct hardness testing is that in which within the limit, maximum possible load is applied. This is the main advantage in this type of testing that we can use a wide range of loads ( 5, 10,20,30,50,100, or 120 kg) as per the requirement. Selection of load can be done by the following formula. F = H.T.2 1.8544 Where H = approx. hardness of the test piece. T = thickness of the material or case depth. In this test 1360 angle pyramid shaped, diamond tipped indentor is used. There is no requirement of any initial load, the abovementioned load can be used as per the requirement. Testing piece should be fine polished. After applying selected load indentor will make its impression on the testing item. By measuring the diagonals of the impression, we can calculate the hardness of the testing item by the following formula:

Where P = Load in kg. = angle between two faces of the impression. = 1260 D = d1+d2 ( d and d2 are diagonal lengths of the impression) Thus HV = 1.8544 x P D2

By this method we can check the hardness of the hardened tools, case- hardened items and other metals having high hardness.

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(4) Micro Hardness Testing Hardness testing under very low load is micro hardness testing in this testing very low load series is being used as a force. By this method we can measure the hardness of very fine and thin items like cutting edge of cutters, wires, thin sheets. Even hardness can be checked at different phases and grains of micro structures. 10 gram to 10 kg weight is used for testing. To measure the accurate diameter of the impression, it is magnified 100, 200, 400, and 800 times as per requirement. Since this is a very accurate measurement, the thickness of the calibration line is also taken into account. The diameter of the impression is measured in such way that the thickness of the calibration line gets eliminated. This is also useful for measuring the effective case depth of case hardened materials. By using the following formula, we can calculate the hardness number: HV = 1.8544 X p/d2 p = load in kg D = diameter of the impression in mm

Where

Utmost care is taken at the time of the preparation of the sample for testing; The testing surface of the sample should be parallel to the base surface and that should be polished mirror like without any heating and surface distorting. If the sample requires cutting, then it should be cut without heating so that every property and structure remains the same. Distortion Even after taking all precautions during heat treatment of steel items, distortion can not be fully avoided. The tendency for getting more distortion depends mainly on a) Type of steel b) Dimension c) Fixtures available d) Other precautions.

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a) Type of Steel The most critical point for getting distortion during heat-treatment is by the quenching process, because of stresses developing in the quenched items by cooling down so fast. Especially by items with complicated cross-sections, by which the cooling proceeds not process to get maximum hardness, the greater the extent of distortion (non-uniform steels) that develops in the heat treated job. Since unalloyed steels need a very fast quenching (water) to achieve maximum hardness, the tendency for distortion is very high. Alloyed steels do not require such fast cooling (by hardening ) to achieve maximum hardness can be seen in TTT- diagram. It should be known: unalloyed steel items will get always more distortion by H.T than alloyed steel items. To reduce distortion to an absolute minimum, non-distortion steels are available. The speciality of non-deforming steels (p.ex.OHNS = 90MnV8)are: low austenitizing temperature required low cooling rate4 (quenching) sufficient to achieve high hardness.

Non-distortion (non-deforming)steels are recommended for following components: required) if items are of very thin or long size (p.Ex.5mmx10mmx150mm) if non-uniform quenching is expected because of complicated cross-section on the item to be heat treated. If straightening would be impossible or could be managed only with great difficulty (after H.T.). if no or very little grinding allowance is given (and H.T is

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Usually components with thicker cross-sections (diameter above 50mm) have a lesser tendency to get distorted/deformed during heat-treatment. Therefore also other low-alloyed steels (en-18, En-19, En-24) are suitable to keep distortion to minimum. Also highly alloyed steels have lesser tendency to get distorted during heat- treatment, but they are too costly to be used only for the purpose of getting les distortion and no other high properties are required for the component. It should be known that of distortion would be present after heat-treatment in items of alloyed steels (including High x Carbon Steels), straightening would be very difficult. To maintain H.T. jobs distortion free, attention should be given to other precautions (d) to be made by all heat-treatment processes. By using non-alloyed steels. Always distortion will be present after heat-treating them for maximum hardness(above HRC 35). It should be avoided to use this steel for manufacturing of titems with less grinding allowance or to put under consideration that straightening has to be done. b) Dimensions Variations in the cross-section of one item (holes, thick and thin diameters)always leads to No uniform relieving of stress during heating because of faster heating smaller section (=extension ). Non-uniform developing of stress during quenching, because of faster cooling of smaller sections (=shrinking). To keep these stresses to a minimum, preventive measures have to be taken as described under type of steels (=selection of steels ) And other precautions(normalizing , stress-relieving, pre-heating, alternative quenching).

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c) Fixtures available Fixtures help to keep items to be heat-treated in a proper position (=vertical or uniform supported )in the furnace during quenching.

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d)

Other precautions

Normalizing (of raw materials) Items which have gotten their rough shape due to a previous cold or warm-forming process(forging, rolling etc.) have a non-uniform structure. Transformation of structures during heatingup for austenitizing will lead also to change of volume (different atomic configuration ). To this transformation os also added transformation of grain sizes, if these are not uniform (as after forming processes), resulting in more deformations. Stress-relieving Items getting mechanical stresses during aching, especially during tough machining (shaping, honing ) with heavy cut and large feed. Theses tresses get relieved fast by heating up item above transformation line, For the slow-relieving of these stresses without deformation, a process called stress-relireing (450 to 650 C for minimum 3 hours) is required after rough-achining. (By final machining, items will absorb only minor stresses, which are not worth mentioning in the context of precautions against distortion). Pre-heating It provides more uniformity by heating up of the items, because temperature gaps are not so large. It also relives some stresses. Therefore highly alloyed steel items need more pre-heating steps because of higher final maddening temperature (=austenitizing temperature)

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Also because of reaching the final temperature more uniformly (thinner to thicker sections), it prevents thinner cross-sections against over-timing. Austenitizing Temperature For high distortion sensitive items, lowest possible austenitizing temperature should be selected, because of temperature gradiation. Alternative quenching (if possible ) To minimize stresses which develop during quenching: Saltwater .. Water oil emulsion. Oil .. heated oil (70/80 C ) Quenching salt bath air. Or interrupted hardening =suppose for ites to be normally water-quenched=quenched for very fiw seconds in water (depending on dia.) and continuing with oil quenching.
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