Think Your Materials Are Tough? Let's Put Them to the Test

‘How tough are your materials, really?’

Material hardness really matters in manufacturing, machining, or product quality. Hardness determines much of a material’s ability to become a safe, durable, and high-quality component of your product or design.

Reliable testing is the way to get real answers to whether a material is strong and resilient enough. Hardness testing equipment provides you with a solution by providing you with accurate, trustworthy, and universally understandable calculations of hardness.

Here, we explore the importance of hardness testing in more detail and how hardness testing works.

Why Hardness Testing Matters

Hardness testing procedures assess a material’s resistance to cracking, breaking, indentation and scratching. There are many reasons why hardness matters, from safety and product durability and performance to cosmetic concerns.

Any manufacturing company must ensure the materials used in its products are tough enough for their role. The hardness testing process is crucial to maintaining compliance within legal frameworks, consumer confidence, reputation, and, ultimately, profitability.

What’s more, hardness testing gives companies the confidence to push forward with new designs and products. A single weak point in a critical component can lead to major problems down the line. Hardness testing helps catch those issues early, and before they become costly fixes or safety risks.

Hardness testing is used widely in aerospace, automotive, construction, and manufacturing, among other settings. Any business creating components, parts, or tools may have good reasons to use hardness testing.

What Happens When You Skip Hardness Testing

During the research and development phase of any new product, hardness testing has its place. Skipping this test can save time and money in the short term, but it could lead to problems later and cost you greatly in the long term. Without a true understanding of whether your component parts are all tough and strong enough to do their job, you are taking a big risk. Further down the line, you may experience part failure, poor product performance, and even create safety hazards.

In the automotive industry, for example, parts like gears and bearings need to meet very specific hardness levels to function properly under load. If they don’t, they can wear out prematurely or fail altogether. The result of failure here is expensive recalls or downtime and, of course, a risk to public safety. Even in less high-stakes environments, poor quality control can chip away at your bottom line. If parts are too brittle, too soft, or just out of spec, then this means more rework, wasted materials, and delays. If your product is already supposed to be on the market, then the result is disappointed customers.

A study published in Materials Performance found that improper material selection and lack of mechanical property testing, including hardness, contributed to over 25% of component failures in industrial settings. Hardness testing is one of the fastest ways to eliminate that risk and keep your production running smoothly. It’s a small step with a big impact.

Meet the Hardness Testers

Now you understand the importance of hardness testing, what’s next? Let’s explore different methods of hardness testing.

Hardness testers are instruments used to test a material’s resistance to deformation, specifically indentation, under pressure. These instruments use an indenting tool in a specific shape, such as a ball or diamond, to apply pressure under a controlled load to the surface of a material. When the pressure is removed, any indentation left behind is measured.

There are four principal hardness testers, each serving a different purpose and determining different universally recognised hardness values. Let’s meet them.

Rockwell

The Rockwell hardness tester is the most commonly used method of testing hardness. It is suited to both metals and plastics. The instrument measures the depth of indentation following the application of pressure.

In Rockwell testing, a minor load is applied to create a reference position. A major load is then applied for a predetermined amount of time before reverting to the minor load. The difference between the indentation from the major and minor loads gives the Rockwell Hardness Value.

Vickers

A Vickers hardness tester measures the two diagonals of an indentation following the application of force through a square-based pyramid indenter. The values of the two measurements are then used to calculate the Vickers Pyramid Number.

Brinell

Brinell is often used when a material’s grain structure is too coarse to be accurately measured through Brinell or Vickers. Brinell uses a ball-shaped indenter. Measurements of the indentation’s diameter are taken in at least two directions and perpendicular to each other. These are used to create the Brinell hardness value.

Knoop

Knoop is a micro-harness test commonly used for brittle or thin materials. It is similar to the Vickers test in that it uses a diamond indenter, but Knoop is much more reliable at calculating the small distances detected in the indent.

Are You Ready to Put Your Materials to the Test?

Not all materials are the same, and neither are hardness testers. Let’s explore how to ensure you have the right tool for the job.

Start by thinking about what you need to test. Are you working with metals like steel, aluminum, or brass? Are your parts small and delicate, or large and industrial-grade? For many businesses, a Rockwell Hardness Tester is the go-to option because it’s fast, reliable, and versatile. It offers consistent results with minimal prep time.

You need to get the right tester for your environment, too. Benchtop testers are ideal for high-volume or lab environments where precision is critical. Portable models, on the other hand, are perfect for on-site testing, large parts, or when space is tight. And with newer digital testers, you get extra perks like data storage, user-friendly interfaces, and quick readouts.

Cost is always part of the conversation, but the real value comes from investing in equipment that fits your workflow and reduces risk. The right tester can pay for itself by reducing defects, rework, and quality complaints.

Ready to put your materials to the test? Then it’s time to explore the range of hardness testers available today.