HARDNESS TESTING

A hardness test is a method employed to measure the hardness of a material. Hardness refers to a material’s resistance to permanent indentation.

The Brinell scale characterizes the indentation hardness of materials through the scale of penetration of an indenter, loaded on a material test-piece.

It is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science. The typical test uses a steel ball as an indenter.

For softer materials, a smaller force is used; for harder materials, a tungsten carbide ball is substituted for the steel ball.