ISSN: 0090-3973
Published Online: 15 March 2006
Page Count: 13

Effects of Steel and Tungsten Carbide Ball Indenters on Rockwell Hardness Measurements

Ma, L
Research Associate,Kent State University,OH,

Low, SR
Materials Research Engineer,National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),MD,

Fink, J
Physical Science Technician (retired),National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),MD,

(Received 24 October 2005; accepted 13 January 2006)

Abstract

The Rockwell hardness (HR) test is a valuable and widely used indentation hardness test for evaluating mechanical properties of metallic materials. For the Rockwell scales that use a ball indenter, either a steel or tungsten carbide (WC) ball indenter is permitted to be used in the current standards of ASTM International and the International Organization for Standardization. However, significant differences occur in Rockwell hardness tests depending on whether the ball indenter that is used is made of steel or WC. In this paper, finite element analysis is used to simulate the HR indentation process using steel and WC ball indenters on the same test materials under the same testing conditions. The effects of four different sizes of steel and WC ball indenters on different Rockwell hardness scales are studied and compared with the experimental tests. This study provides important approximations of differences between the performance of steel and WC Rockwell hardness indenters.

Keywords:
ball indenter, finite element analysis, Rockwell hardness test

Paper ID: JTE100048
DOI: 10.1520/JTE100048
ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.