ENGD2105D: Materials Engineering and Processing

Lab Report : Hardness Testing of Materials

Objective :
o Familiarize with the methods used to calculate the hardness of engineering materials.
o Outline the effect of how carbon content in steel affects its hardness.

o Determine the hardness conditions on various carbon steel.

Background Theory :
The technique used to identify a materials resistance towards localized permanent
deformation by penetrating an even harder material is called Hardness Testing of Materials.
Hardness testing is essential in engineering, as it helps to understand the suitability of a material
for a given purpose by reviewing its properties, such as ductility, strength and wear resistance.
[Michaelsen, 2019]. The test involves an Indenter, (a loaded and specially dimensioned object),
being pressed on to the surface of the test material, causing a scratch or indentation. Analyses of
this indenter's depth of penetration or the size of the indenter's imprint are used to measure the
hardness of material. Examples of indenter include diamond pyramids, hardened steel balls and
conical diamond.
Hardness test can be of two types:-

The two types of Hardness testing used in this Lab experiment are :-
(1) Rockwell hardness test: usually used for quick tests, for metals in large quantities and
samples. The Indenters constitute of conical diamond for testing hard materials or a
spherical hardened steel balls having consistent diameters for testing a wide range of
 not-so hard materials. The load applied ranges from 15 kg to 150 kg depending on the
test scale. Here the depth of the indent measures the hardness.
Rockwell hardness must be specified using both the hardness number and scale symbol.
Following the appropriate scale identification, the scale is identified by the symbol HR.
For instance, 45 HRC corresponds to a C-scale Rockwell hardness of 45.
This method is not appropriate for testing brittle materials as the indenter - hardened
steel ball, is not hard enough and/or the brittle material might crack due to the high
load.

(2) Vickers hardness tests: usually used for wide variety of materials such as solid metallic
metal, for wide range of applications. The Indenter constitute a small diamond indenter
having pyramidal geometry, forced into the surface of the material. The load used in this
case is small, requiring the material to be polished or grinded for accurate measurements.
Here the diagonals of the indent are measured optically to determine the hardness.
Two kinds of Vickers hardness test methods based on the loads applied :

Apparatus :
i. Rockwell Hardness Tester with a conical diamond indenter
ii. Plain carbon steels (in weight %) : 0.20- 0.30, 0.35-0.45, 0.60-0.70
iii. Heat treated Alloy steel 1.2C + many alloy elements, for making cutting tools

Procedure : Fig.1 Hardness Testing Machine

 o Use a 150 kg load on the Rockwell tester, Scale C (HRC)
o Use a 100 kg load on the Rockwell tester, Scale B (HRB)

Fig.2 Measuring Rockwell Hardness Fig.3 Measuring Vickers Hardness

Calculations & Results :

Low alloy plain carbon steels

Rockwell Hardness

% Carbon Hardness Readings, HRC

1 2 Mean

0.20-0.30 9 8 8.5

0.35-0.45 29 31 30
 0.60-0.70 66 67 66.5

Heat treated Alloy steel

Rockwell Hardness

Material Scale Hardness Readings

Hardness
Condition
1 2 Mean

Unhardened 30 30 30

Medium Hardened 50 51 50.5

Carbon Alloy HRC
Steel Hardened and
26 25 25.5
Tempered

Medium Annealed 86 86 86
Carbon Steel HRB
Hardened 91 90 90.5
(un Alloy)

Graphs :
Discussion & Analysis :
Effect of carbon content on hardness
From the experiment, its evident that hardness and carbon content are directly proportional.
Increase in a materials hardness is increase in the carbon content too. In Graph 1, for 0.20% of
carbon content the hardness is 8 minimum, whereas for 0.35% of carbon content the Hardness
swiftly increases to 31 and 67 maximum for 0.6% carbon content, hence a slight increase in the
percentage of Carbon increases the Hardness of the Material in many folds.

Effect of tempering temperature on hardness

From the above data it is evident that there is zero correlation between tempering temperatures
and hardness. Due to rise in tempering temperature the steel hardness constantly grows and falls
without any specific pattern. This may be due to other factors affecting the hardness of the steel.
According to studies there is a large drop at 700°C tempered temperature for both Rockwell and
Vickers hardness against Tempering temperature.
The steel's peak hardness is a result of its martensitic structure. The greater hardness value of
martensite is caused by its properties, which let differing degrees of residual stress to accumulate
in the quenched sections of the material. This is because martensite has a lot of carbon atoms,
which are tightly packed in between iron atoms. As carbon atoms move out of these restricted
regions to produce iron carbide particles during the tempering process of the steels, the
martensite is relieved from its tension. This decrease in hardness causes an increase in ductility,
which lessens how brittle the steel is.
Errors:

Errors might include instrumental and human errors. Human errors may include taking incorrect
readings this might be because of the machine generating inaccurate results as the lens of the
machine may have not been aligned correctly to the indents produced by the load, therefore
causing inaccurate readings and results. Additionally, the readings could be altered due to pre-
existing scratches on the face of the material and may interfere with the hardness testing machine
as they may be mistaken for indents on the material. final possible source of error is that the
sample may not be positioned correctly on the hardness testing equipment, as the indentations on
the surface of the material may line up with the indentations used on previous samples. which
will cause inaccurate hardness readings. testing instrument.

Conclusion :
It can be concluded that the hardness of ordinary low alloy steel is directly proportional to the
carbon content of the material, since an increase in the carbon content triggers an increase in the
hardness of the material. However, there is no specific correlation between heat treated high
speed steel and the effect of tempering temperature, although the material is affected by
tempering temperature, the evidence presented in the graph does not show not clear how it is
affected. This is because the hardness value of steel fluctuates until it reaches a maximum value,
after which it suddenly drops once the tempering temperature reaches a higher value. The
validity of the experiment can be improved by using newer, cleaner specimens that have been
polished and ground so that the indentations are clearly visible on the hardness testing machine
and readings can be taken more accurately. Additionally, if the average of all results is taken, the
experiment can be repeated to improve the validity and accuracy of the results.

Bibliography :

1. Michaelsen, H., 2019 | Hardness testing, Struers. [online] Available at:

https://www.struers.com/en/Knowledge/Hardness-testing# (Accessed: November 23,
2022).
2. Hardness Testing lab sheet