It is essential that both designers and engineers know how materials perform if they are to be used. There are certain properties that can be measured to ascertain whether a material is suitable for the job at hand. These include:
To measure these properties special tests have been developed. This report will examine the hardness, toughness and tensile tests. All of these tests are destructive, usually ending with an unusable test piece after completion of the test. These tests provide a standardisation of materials providing assured quality in production and allowing factors of safety to be built into components where it is needed e.g. Airplanes, Bridges.
Hardness is tested by measuring a material resistance to surface indentation and sc
The Vickers test uses a diamond-square based pyramid indenter at an angle of 136°
The Rockwell system has many hardness scales. The scales have set indenter type, size and indenting force. The system is used in the USA and is entirely empirical.
The hardness tests are carried out by pressing an indenter (a very hard piece of metal or diamond) against the surface of the test piece. Hardness values are then calculated by measuring the indentation. There standard hardness tests are:
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