Hardness Testing

Indentation Hardness used for steel

as opposed to scratch or rebound hardness

It is indicative of ultimate tensile strength

Atoms move out of the way to create indentation

Two main types: Brinell and Rockwell

Brinell Hardness

Brinell Hardness
A spherical indenter (1 cm diameter) is shot with 29 kN force at the target Frequently the indenter is steel, but for harder materials it is replaced with a tungsten carbide sphere The diameter of the indentation is recorded The indentation diameter can be correlated with the volume of the indentation.

Brinell Hardness

BHN

D D

2P

Brinell Hardness
ASTM and ISO use the HB value. It can be HBS (Hardness, Brinell, Steel) or the HBW (Hardness, Brinell, Tungsten) HBW = 0.102 BHN Sometimes written as HBW 10/3000 (Tungsten, 10 mm diameter, 3,000 kg force)

Typical HB values
Material Softwood (e.g., pine) Hardwood Aluminum Copper Mild steel 18-8 (304) stainless steel annealed Glass Hardened tool steel Rhenium diboride Hardness 1.6 HBS 10/100 2.67.0 HBS 1.6 10/100 15 HB 35 HB 120 HB 200 HB 1550 HB 15001900 HB 4600 HB

Rockwell Hardness

Rockwell Hardness

Rockwell Hardness Scales

Scale Code A B C D Load Indenter 120 diamond cone Use Tungsten carbide HRA 60 kgf

Al, brass, and HRB 100 kgf 1/16 in diameter steel sphere soft steels HRC 150 kgf 120 diamond cone HRD 100 kgf 120 diamond cone Harder steels

E
F G

HRE 100 kgf 1/8 in diameter steel sphere

HRF 60 kgf 1/16 in diameter steel sphere

HRG 150 kgf 1/16 in diameter steel sphere

Conversion/Comparison
HBW 10/3000 638 578 461 375 311 241 207 HRA 60KG 80.8 79.1 74.9 70.6 66.9 61.8 HRB 100KG 100 94.6 HRC 150KG 59.2 56 48.5 40.4 33.1 22.8 16 Tensile Strength (Approx) 329,000 297,000 235,000 188,000 155,000 118,000 100,000

179
149 111

89
80.8 65.7

87,000
73,000 56,000

Effect of Strain Rate

Effect of Strain Rate

Effect of Temperature

Creep
When a material is loaded below the yield stress point for a long period of time, it may incur plastic deformation. When the material is stretched below the yield point at increased temperatures creep will develop over several stages. The temperature level at which creep will initiate depends on the alloy
For aluminum, creep may start at approx. 200C and for low alloying steel at approx. 370C

Creep

Creep

Effects of Punching Holes/Shearing

Holes and shearing cause cold work near the edges of the material. Cold work can lead to brittle failure/cracking

Drilling Holes
The work hardening effect when drilling the austenitic stainless steel grades eg 304, 316 is the main cause of problems.
make sure that the steel is fully annealed when deep or small diameter holes are to be drilled. Cold drawn bar products should be avoided.

rigid machines and tooling should be used when drilling or reaming.

Drilling
Center punching with conventional conical shaped punches can result in enough localized work hardening to make drill entry difficult.
drill tip can deflect or wander, glaze the surface or blunt the drill tip and result in drill breakages

Where a punch mark is needed to help get the hole started, a light mark using a threecornered pyramid tip punch is a better idea.

Drilling
Essential to maintain feed rate to cut the work hardened layer generated as the metal is cut.
Dwell or rubbing must be avoided. Entry and re-entry should be done at full speed and feed rate.

When drilling through-holes, a backing plate should be used to help avoid drill breakages as the drill comes out of the blind side of the hole.

Drills
The cutting angle should be around 135. Larger angles produce thinner chips that should be easier to remove, which is important when drilling stainless steels. Lower angles of around 120 can be used for drilling freemachining grades

Reaming
Cold working during drilling, punching or machining the preparation hole prior to reaming austenitic stainless steels must be minimized. Sufficient material must be left on the hole wall however to allow a positive reaming cut to be made to undercut the new workhardened layer produced.

Reaming

Shearing Steel

Shearing Steel
If shear edges are to be left exposed, at least 1/16 inch of material should be trimmed
Usually by grinding or machining

Note that rough machining (edge planers making a deep cut) can produce same effects

Effects of Welding
Failures in service rarely occur in a properly made weld.
When failure occurs it is initiated at a notch defect This could come from flaws in the weld metal

Welding-arc strikes may cause embrittlement in the base metal Preheating before welding minimizes risk of brittle failure.
Less likelihood of cracking during cooling

Welding
Rapid cooling of weld can have bad effects.
If there is an arc strike with no deposited metal, it will cool quicker than the rest and likely embrittle

Welds are sometimes peened to prevent cracking and distortion. Some specs prohibit peening in first and last weld passes.
Peening reduces toughness and impact properties (work hardens the weld)

Single pass weld

Multipass weld

Defect

Thermal Cutting
Oxyfuel, air carbon arc, plasma arc Similar problems with welding
Pre-heating is desired in many applications

Roughness of cut surface depends on

Uniformity of pre-heat Uniformity of the cutting velocity Quality of steel

Thermal Cutting

Residual stress flame cut