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VISUALIZATION OF PERFORMING THE VICKERS HARDNESS TEST ON
ELECTRONIC VICKERS HARDNESS MACHINE.
INTRODUCTION
Vickers hardness is a measure of the hardness of a material, calculated from the size of an impression produced
under load by a pyramid-shaped diamond indenter. It is devised in the 1920s by engineers at Vickers, Ltd. in the
United Kingdom.
It is the standard method for measuring the hardness of metals, particularly those with extremely hard surfaces.
The surface is subjected to a standard pressure for a standard period of time by means of a pyramid-shaped
diamond. The diagonal of the resulting indention is measured under a microscope and the Vickers Hardness value
read from a conversion table.
The indenter employed in the Vickers test is a square-based pyramid whose opposite sides meet at the apex at an
angle of 136. The diamond is pressed into the surface of the material at loads ranging up to approximately 120
kilograms-force, and the size of the impression (usually no more than 0.5 mm) is measured with the aid of a
calibrated microscope.
ADVANTAGES OVER BRI NELL HARDNESS TEST
The Vickers test is reliable for measuring the hardness of metals, and also used on ceramic materials.
Rather than using the Brinell's steel ball type indenter, and have to calculate the hemispherical area of
impression, the Vickers machine uses a penetrator that is square in shape, but tipped on one corner so it
has the appearance of a playing card "diamond".
The Vickers indenter is a 136 degrees square-based diamond cone, the diamond material of the indenter
has an advantage over other indenters because it does not deform over time and use.
The impression left by the Vickers penetrator is a dark square on a light background. The Vickers
impression is more easily "read" for area size than the circular impression of the Brinell method.

OBJECTIVE
How to perform test on the Vickers hardness testing machine.
Experimental Work:
We could not perform the practical for the sake of study, we just visualize the machine how to perform or operate
the Vickers hardness test. The sample on which we perform the experiment is already polished and prepared and
also we do not the type of the material.
APPARATUS:
Vickers Hardness Testing Machine (automatic)
Sample

PROCEDURE:
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These are the steps that how to operate the Vickers Hardness tester:
1. Take the polished sample to the extent of one micron as in the Metallography.
2. Place it on the anvil of the test machine under the bright light of microscope.
3. By seeing the in the lens, focus the sample so the micro phases could be clearly seen. You can do this
rotating the knobs attached side by.
4. Now rotate the disk, the indenter of the machine exactly will come on the surface which you were seeing
in the lens.
5. As this is electronic and automatic machine; the load, time, can select digitally on the electronic LCD.
6. When selected the desired settings, the press the start button to make indentation.
7. Again rotate the disk to lens section and measure the distance of the diagonals. Two lines are shown in the
lens you can manually tell the machine the values of the diagonal by seeing the microscope.
8. At the end, the machine will give you the values of the Hardness number in HV and HR.


Where:
F= Load in kgf
d = Arithmetic mean of the two diagonals, d1 and d2 in mm
HV = Vickers hardness
PRECAUTIONS:
As the machine is automatic so care should be taken to perform a test on it. You cant stop it once you
give wrong input.
As the diagonal values have to select manually, lines of the slit should exactly meet the corners of the
diagonal.
Result:
The following result is obtained during performing the experiment:
1st diagonal = L1 =
2nd diagonal = L2 =
Load applied = P = 1 kg
Time = t = 10s
HV =
HRC =
DISCUSSION:
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There were two phases present in the sample one was white and other was black in color. The hardness of two
phases was different. Ferrite is soft phase while pearlite is hard phase, so these can be differentiated on the base
of hardness. The difference in hardness values for same phase may be different due to indent location i-e one
indent is at the center of phase while the other is at the edge of grain. The machine is working well and its
condition is ok. The machine is fully automatic and highly accuracy can be obtained. The indentation of the
Vickers hardness could not be seen by naked eyes; we have to use microscope of 40 x magnification for this
purpose.
CONCLUSION:
Micro Vicker gives hardness of phases, thin sheets and even folis which is not possible by other hardness tests.
White phase has less hardness which is ferrite and black phase has more hardness which is pearlite.
SUGGESTION:
The criterion should have to adopt as we did in the previous case (Brinell and Rockwell).
We have to take individual unknown samples then try to characterize that sample.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ASM HANDBOOK VOL. 8
MATERIAL FOR ENGINEERS AND TECHNITION, FOUTH EDITION