The Vickers hardness tester measures hardness by pressing a diamond indenter shaped as a square pyramid into a material's surface under a known load and measuring the diagonal length of the resulting indentation to calculate a hardness value. Engineers at the British armaments and engineering firm Vickers Ltd, principally Robert L. Smith and George E. Sandland, developed the test in 1921 as an improvement on the existing Brinell method, seeking a single hardness scale that could cover the full range from very soft to very hard materials using one small, geometrically similar indenter regardless of load. Because the pyramidal indentation is always geometrically similar at any load, the Vickers test avoids the load-dependent inconsistency of the ball-indenter Brinell method and is widely used for testing thin sheets, coatings and small precision parts.
Facts
SignificanceHardness calculation is independent of indenter size, and one indenter works for all materials regardless of hardness. 1 FAQs
Why can one Vickers indenter be used on materials of any hardness?
The calculations do not depend on indenter size.
The Vickers calculations are independent of the size of the indenter, so the same indenter works for all materials irrespective of hardness. This was one reason it was developed in 1921 by Robert L. Smith and George E. Sandland at Vickers Ltd as an alternative to the Brinell method.
Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Vickers hardness test
Introduction, sentence 1
The Vickers hardness test was developed in 1921 by Robert L. Smith and George E. Sandland at Vickers Ltd
Introduction, sentence 2
the required calculations are independent of the size of the indenter, and the indenter can be used for all materials irrespective of hardness
- In Group: Materials Testing Instruments, lead sentence, 'presses a diamond pyramid indenter... to measure the hardness of materials'
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