New Standard for Portable Hardness Testing Developed by ASTM

摘要

Standard hardness tests for steel, including the Brinell, Vickers and various Rockwell tests, are generally classified as bench testers. This means the tested component needs to be taken to the machine to measure its hardness. To test larger pieces, such as forgings, a section would need to be removed from the forging in order for it to be tested. Since this is not always feasible or even possible, ASTM International's Committee A01 on Steel, Stainless Steel and Related Alloys has developed a standard for portable hardness testing. The new standard, A1038, Practice for Portable Hardness Testing by the Ultrasonic Contact Impedance Method, is under the jurisdiction of ASTM Subcommittee A01.06 on Steel Forgings and Billets, "The solution is to take the hardness tester to the forging rather than the other way around," says Ed Nisbett, an independent consultant who is chairman of Subcommittee A01.06.