Metal hardness testing: methods and scales

Metal hardness is one of the characteristics of metals that shows how much this material resists deformation. It’s easy to assume that all metals are hard, but there are some, like mercury, which is liquid at room temperature and doesn’t even have any hardness, and sodium metal, which you can cut with a kitchen knife. There are several different scales and systems that measure metal hardness. In this article, stay with SabaProfil to do a general review of these measurement systems.

What is meant by the hardness of a metal?

In material science, hardness is the ability to resist surface indentation and scratching. Hardness is important from an engineering point of view because the resistance to wear caused by friction or erosion generally increases with hardness.

 

Metal hardness is a characteristic that determines surface wear and wear resistance. The ability of a material to resist impact indentation is related to the hardness as well as the ductility of a material.

There are various methods and tests to obtain the hardness of metals, each of which does this in a different way. In the following, some examples of these methods will be further investigated.

Mouse hardness scale

When it comes to hardness, most people are familiar with the Mohs hardness scale. This scale was created in 1812 by the German geologist and mineralogist Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839). This system determines hardness based on surface wear. The idea behind the Mohs hardness scale is very simple. Scratching a material with another material. If material A can scratch material B, material A is harder than material B. This scale is used almost exclusively for minerals and gems, but can also be applied to metals.

 

Source: SabaProfile


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