Welcome to the hardness project

Traceability for Indentation Measurements in Brinell-Vickers-Knoop Hardness

22RPT01 TracInd BVK-H

Dear Reader,

Material properties are crucial factors in construction, design and engineering. Knowledge of the critical mechanical properties of materials used in production and construction is essential to prevent health and safety hazards, control the costs of production, and create better designed, healthy and consumer friendly products. This knowledge is obtained with reliable tests that are constituted by accurate, reliable and consistent reference standards at NMIs and a link to end-user measurements for the lowest level in a workshop through a continuous traceability chain. Hardness is an important material property and testing method and defined as the resistance of material against deformation. Brinell, Vickers and Knoop testing methods are three of the most important ones used for hardness testing of metallic materials. Hardness is determined in these scales by measurement of the size of an indentation made with an indenter of known geometry and properties on the surface of the material with a known force.

This project will investigate the indentation measurement phenomena to provide a better defined, more consistent, unified and reliable measurement and traceability methodology to overcome the inconsistency between NMIs and lower levels of indentation (hardness) measurements as well as between NMIs. The project outcomes will be used in the next generation of hardness definitions, instrumentation and standardisation to improve the accuracy of material testing in all engineering fields, including aerospace, automotive, health, industry, and research and development.

Sincerely yours,

Cihan Kuzu

Project Coordinator