The Morehouse team can calibrate your hardness tester. The load is applied to the Brinell Calibrator, and the resulting deflection is read on the indicator. The error of the hardness tester load is determined by dividing the deflection of the Calibrator under load by the difference between the actual deflection and what the deflection should be for the calibrated load.
The Brinell hardness tester uses the oldest method of hardness testing commonly used today and is used to determine the hardness of castings and forgings with a coarse grain structure. The Brinell test itself is an indentation test where a known indenter, for a Brinell test, a ball, which is applied perpendicularly to the material under test at a known force for a specified amount of time (dwell time). At the end of the dwell time, the diameter of the resulting indentation is measured in at least two directions perpendicular to each other. The Brinell hardness value is then determined from the mean of the diameter measurements typically by chart or table based on a specific mathematical formula.
There are approximately 25 different load/ ball combinations of Brinell testing so almost all metals are able to be tested using the Brinell test by simply varying the ball size and test force based on the sample’s dimension and design.
Results from Brinell Hardness testers are used throughout the industry as a basis for acceptance of commercial shipments and for quality control purposes. These results may correlate with other metallic characteristics such as ductility, tensile strength, wear resistance, etc.