What is the Rockwell hardness test?
Rockwell hardness test is a way of measuring the surface force of different materials. The basic idea is to find out how durable the material to deform and convert it into a number. When performing the Rockwell hardness test, scientists will define the materials with different weights. The test is performed using a special device that measures the depth of indentation to create a number. Various amounts of weight and scale are used for different types of materials.
There are a few steps that scientists use to perform a Rockwell hardness test. First, the material is placed in the device, allowing to apply the weight through the exhaustor. The osice usually has the shape of a wedge, but sometimes it can be rounded, depending on the material and the test parameters.
As soon as the material is in place, a relatively small amount of weight is generally applied. This usually deforms the material for a small extension and scientists will measure. Then the weight is added to further deform the material. In many cases the second weight will beleft on the spot for a specified period of time. At this point, the testers remove the second weight, while leaving the first weight in place and then performing further measurements.
In typical circumstances, the removal of the second weight will not allow the material to return to the same depth as it originally had a low weight. In general, heavy weight would cause a certain amount of permanent deformation. This permanent change is what scientists usually try to measure when performing a Rockwell hardness test, so the measurement they are interested in is the difference between the depth, when low weight is originally applied and the depth after heavy weight is removed.
The measurement itself is usually even a number based on units consisting of every 0.002 millimeters, although this may vary depending on the materials that workers test. Very small measuring unit is useful for Rockwell hardness test because many tested materials are proportionalThey will not be strong and will not deform too much. For example, Rockwell hardness is often used to measure the efficiency of various metal temperament techniques and tempered metals are generally very resistant to deformation.
Rockwell hardness test is not the only way to measure the hardness of materials. There are several other competing systems, but the Rockwell test is generally more popular. The biggest advantages of Rockwell test compared to other methods are comfort and test speed.