Hardness - the property of metals to resist the penetration of other, more solid materials. Hardness determines many of the operational properties of the metal wear resistance, cutting properties of the tool for metal working, erosion resistance, etc. Hardness can sometimes indirectly determine the tensile strength and yield strength of the metal without cutting the samples. Most methods of determining the hardness are based on the principle of pressing into a sample harder metal ball, cone or pyramid.
To test the hardness of metals and alloys Brinell hardness tester type 5004 TB is used (photo 2).
According to Brinell, hardness
test is performed by pushing hardened steel ball into tested material. After
removing the load you can see the imprint from the ball on the surface of
tested material, which parameters are then used in the calculations.