|  | Hardness Testing 
 METAL HARDNESS TESTING
 Hardness tests have a wide field of use although, as commercial tests, they 
				are perhaps more commonly applied  to metals than any other class of material.
				The results of metal hardness tests may be utilised as follows:-
 
 (1) Similar materials may be graded according to hardness
 
 (2) The quality level of materials or products may be checked or controlled 
				by hardness tests. They may be applied to determine the uniformity of samples 
				of a metal or the uniformity of results of some heat treatment such as forming, 
				alloying, heat treatment or case hardening.
 
 (3) By establishing a correlation between hardness and some other desired 
				property, e.g. tensile strength
 
 (4) Comparison of weld metal hardness to parent metal hardness
 
 Metal hardness test are carried out by Calspec using a portable Equotip hardness 
				tester which gives equivalent hardness readings in Brinell, Vickers and Rockwell. 
				The Equotip hardness tester is designed for testing metallic materials the 
				hardness of which ranges from very low to very high values. Typical applications 
				are large, heavy work pieces which are difficult to access.
 
 RUBBER & PLASTIC HARDNESS TESTING
 Durometer type A for hardness testing soft rubber and non-rigid plastics and 
				Durometer type D for harder rubber and plastics
 
 
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  Hardness testing a turbine blade from the Yarrawonga (N.S.W) Power 
				Station at Alstom workshops in Moonah
 
 
  Hardness Testing Rubber Sample
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