Digital transformation applications in mechanical quantities – hardness measurements

One of the most important and widely used testing method for extracting mechanical properties of material is the hardness test. It is mainly based on realizing a deformation on the material, measuring the geometric dimensions of the deformation and from that calculate the hardness value. Measurements are performed with imaging instruments like optical microscopes, mostly operated manually. However, new developments aim to determine the border of indentation, measure its diameter and diagonal length, save and mark the locations of the measured indents on the surface of the hardness reference block by making use of a fully automated indentation measurement system (IMS). This digitalization approach shifts hardness measurements from manual processes to using pixel-wise image processing and fully automated IMS, leading to increased precision, repeatability and speed and leading the way for further improvements by digital transformation.