Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J.

Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

Lab: Testing of Metallic Materials (ISE M.Sc. courses)

Lab Description for Hardness Testing Procedures 1. General

Applicable Standards: Testing Procedure acc. to Brinell DIN EN ISO 6506-1, Vickers DIN EN ISO 6507-1 and Rockwell DIN EN ISO 6508-1. Testing Machines acc. to DIN EN ISO 6506-2, DIN EN ISO 6507-2, DIN EN ISO 6508-2 and DIN 51200. Definition of Hardness: Hardness in general is defined as the resistance of a metallic body against indenting of another body (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Schematic representation of hardness testing

The value of hardness is therefore an important quantity for the machinability of metallic materials. This resistance is being defined by elastic and plastic deformations while a testing force F is applied to the body. (Picture 1/2). After relaxation only the plastic deformation will remain. The deepness of the den is therefore a measure for the hardness.

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

Figure 2: Model for the indenting process; 1 elastic environment; 2 boundary to elastic-plastic zone; 3 elastic-plastic zone; 4 hydrostatic core ; 5 - indenter (pyramid shape)

The absolute value of the indenting deepness depends not only on the tested material, but also on other quantities like the force (load) F, the geometry of the specimen and the loading velocity (Picture 3).

Figure 3: shapes of dent (here: ball-shaped indenter) a) ideal dent ; b) dent with xxxx ; c) dent with xxxx

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

2.

Static Testing Procedures

According to the material to be tested and the test conditions, a few testing procedures have been standardized. Therefore those hardness testing procedures have been chosen to be the basis for conditions of acceptance for metallic materials. In the hardness testing procedures treated in this chapter, the load will be applied in a quasi-static manner. 2.1 Hardness testing procedure acc. to Brinell

2.1.1 General The test is carried out using a ball-shaped indenter in principle. (Figure 4)

Figure 4

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

The hardness will be defined as follows:

HB =

0.102 F A

(2.1.1/1)

With F being the testing force in Newton and A being the surface of indenting in mm. As the surface A has to be calculated from test geometry, the height of the dent has to be measured. As this is not possible in a feasible manner, another method has to be employed. The diameter of the ball-shaped indenter D is measured along with the mean diameter of the dent d, from which the dent height h can be calculated as follows:
h= D D d 2 (2.1.1/2)

This furnishes the following equation for the hardness acc. to Brinell: HB = D : indenter dia [mm] d : mean dent dia [mm] h : dent height [mm] In practical, the hardness value will be taken from tables as a function of indenter dia and dent dia. (DIN EN ISO 6506-1, Appendix C, Table C.1) Indenter balls made of tungsten carbide (HBW) can be used up to a value of 650 HBW. In former times, indenter balls made of hardened steels were also used. In a new standard of 2006, it was proposed that only balls made of sintered tungsten carbide are allowed to be used from this time on.
Steel balls (HBS) were used up to 450 HBS, although it was recommended using steel balls up to a value of max. 350 HBS, since there are distinct elastic deformations of the indenter balls when hardness exceeds this value. These elastic deformations of the indenter affect precision and reproducibility of test results.

0.102 2 F D (D D d )

(2.1.1/3)

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

Figure 5

2.1.2 Testing Devices

Hardness testing devices are machines which apply a test load of 9.807 N up to 29420 N on a polished ball made of tungsten carbide (DIN EN ISO 6506-2). The devices employ an optical magnifying measuring unit, making determination of the dent diameter possible, since dent and its magnification are geometrically similar (Figure 6).

Figure 6

2.1.3 Determination of test load

Page 5 of 11 Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

To obtain a meaningful dent, the dent diameter has to be within a range of 0.24 D up to 0.6 D. A value below 0.24 D means that the dent diameter cannot be determined exactly, since the dent gets very flat (very little height gradient). If d exceeds 0.6 D, d and F will not be proportional to each other. That means, that the test load F and the indenter diameter D have to be adapted to the dent height and therefore to the hardness itself. This leads to the so called degree of exposure (German: Beanspruchungsgrad BG, DIN EN ISO 6506-1, Table 3)
BG =
BG Range of hardness materials examples
30 67 ... 600 Ferrous and highstrength non-ferrous Steel, cast steel, cast iron > 140 HB, Ti-, Ni-, Co-alloys and Cu-alloys > 200 HB

0,102 F D
10 22 ... 315 5 11 ... 158 2.5 6 ... 78 1.25 3 ... 39

(2.1.3/1)

Non-ferrous metals Cast and forging alloys, light alloys, copper, nickel, bronze Pure Aluminium, Magnesium, Zink, cast brass babbit metall Lead, tin, soft metal

The table above furnished the allocation of F and D (see also DIN EN ISO 65061,Table 2). Hardness values acc. to Brinell determined on the same material with different ball diameters remain comparable only in the case if test load is adapted to the indenter diameter so that the dents are geometrically similar (Figure 6).

2.1.4 Test conditions

To achieve useful test results, one has to pay attention to several conditions: 1. The thickness of the specimen has to be at least 8 times the dent height h (DIN EN ISO 6506-1, 6.2 and table B1). There must not be any visible deformation on the backside of the specimen after finished testing procedure.

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

2. The distance between the midpoint of a dent and the borderline of the specimen has to be at least 2.5 times the mean dent diameter (DIN EN 6506-1, 7.7) 3. The distance between the midpoints of two neighbouring dents has to be at least 3 times the mean dent diameter (DIN EN ISO 6506-1, 7.7) 4. The testing surface has to be smooth, plane and free of scale and lubrication (DIN EN ISO 6506-1, 6.1) 5. The load has to be applied free of impact in about 2 to 8 seconds. The duration of loading depends on work-hardening of the material to be tested. In the case of ferrous metals a minimum time of 10 seconds, for non-ferrous metals more than 10 seconds, in general a time of 15 seconds should not be exceeded. (Limit deviation 2 seconds, DIN EN ISO 6506-1, 7.6)

2.1.5 Designation of hardness value (DIN EN ISO 6506-1, 4)

Example 1: 350 HBS 5/750 means: Hardness acc. To Brinell of 350, determined using a steel indenter of 5 mm diameter and a load of 750 kg (7.355 kN) which was applied for 10 15 seconds. Example 2: 600 HBW 1/30/20 means: Hardness acc. To Brinell of 600, determined using a tungsten carbide indenter of 1 mm diameter and a load of 30 kg (294.2 N) which was applied for 20 seconds (see table 2 in addition).

2.1.6 Conversion of hardness values

There is not a general physical procedure of calculative conversion of hardness values. Therefore conversion of these quantities should be avoided (DIN EN ISO 6506-1, 9, Remark 1) The tensile strength can be related to hardness acc. to Brinell as follows: Rm = c HB (2.1.6/1)

Values for c are: 0.35 for steel, 0.55 for cast or annealed non-ferrous alloys, 0.37 for aluminium and its alloys (table 2).

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

2.1.7 Testing procedure acc. to Brinell in the Lab

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Hardness value has to be estimated acc. to literature or calculated from tensile strength Rm Measuring of specimen thickness. Determination of degree of exposure acc. to material Definition of indenter diameter and test load using MS Excel sheet Preparing specimen and testing apparatus; carrying out the test procedure Measuring dent diameter in two perpendicular axes, entering those diameters in MS Excel sheet Hardness will be calculated, repeat steps 5 and 6 two times, so three dents per specimen will be available. Give hardness value in test protocol acc. to DIN EN ISO 6506-1

2.1.8 Test Protocol

The test protocol has to contain the following information: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Denomination of test procedure and reference to DIN EN ISO 6506-1 All details necessary for unique identification of specimen, like type of specimen, material, tested area (photograph) Hardness value with test conditions Special deviations from standard (DIN) Temperature under which test was executed if out of the range 23 5 C

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

2.2

Hardness testing procedure acc. to Vickers (DIN EN ISO 6507-1)

2.2.1 General
In analogy to the Brinell procedure, the hardness is defined as: HV = 0.102 F A (2.2.1/1)

The indenter here here is a regular, four-sided pyramid made of diamond with an surface angle of 136 (acc. to DIN ISO 6507-2). The testing force is arbitrary, because force and dent surface are alwasy proporional to each other. With forces above 5 N, the procedure therefore is loadindependent. The dent surface A will be: d d d2 A= = (2.2.1/2) = 2 cos 22 1.854 360 2 sin 2

The hardness acc. to Brinell follows to: HV = 0.189 F d2 (2.2.1/3)

2.2.2 Determination of test load

In principle, the testing load is arbitrary. Hardness testing according to Vickers is subdivided into Vickers hardness testing (F 49.03N), Vickers, Vickers low load testing ( 1,961N F 49,03N ) and Vickers micro hardness testing ( 0,09807N F < 1,961 ) ( DIN EN ISO 6507-1, Table 1 ).

Page 9 of 11

Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

2.2.3 Devices

Devices according to DIN EN ISO 6507-2 can be applied for testing acc. to Brinell and Vickers.
Testing conditions

Testing condition mentioned under 2.1.2 are valid for Vickers testing also. The size of the dent is very small, which is due the size of the indenter. Therefore more tests on one specimen are possible than acc. to Brinell. 1. The specimen surface has to be clean and ground. If the surface is cambered, correcting functions have to be applied (see DIN EN ISO 6507-1) 2. The distance between the midpoint of the dent and the specimen border has to be at least 2.5 times the mean length of the dent diagonals (very soft materials: 3 times). 3. The distance between midpoints oft wo neighbouring dents has to be at least 3 times the mean length oft he dent diagonals (very soft materials: 6 times) 4. The loading velocity and duration are compatible to those of the Brinell procedure. 5. The specimen thickness has to be at least 1.5 times the mean dent diagonals. This is approximately 10 times the dent deepness (see DIN EN ISO 6507-1, Appendix A).
2.2.4 Designation of hardness value ( DIN 6507-1, Issue 3 )

Example: 520 HV 30 means: hardness acc. to Vickers of 520, determined with a test load of 294.2 N, load duration: 10 to 15 seconds. If the load duration is longer, it will be appended with a slash.

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing

Institute of Applied Materials Technology Chair of Metal Forming Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. J. Mauk

Winter Term 2012/13 Testing of Metallic Materials Laboratory Ch. Overhagen, M.Sc.

2.2.5 Test conduction

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Determination of specimen thickness Definition of test load Definition of border and midpoint distances For every dent: measuring of dent diagonals, at least 3 dents per specimen. Designation of hardness value acc. to DIN.

2.2.6 Test protocol

See 2.1.7

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Testing of Metallic Materials Lab Hardness Testing