Brinell Hardness

Testing & Standards

Определение

A hardness test in which a hardened steel or tungsten carbide ball is pressed into the metal surface under a specified load, and the hardness is calculated from the indentation diameter. Results are expressed in HBW (Brinell Hardness with tungsten carbide ball).

Подробное объяснение

Brinell testing uses a 10 mm ball and loads ranging from 500 to 3000 kg (typically 3000 kg for steel), making it suitable for coarse-grained or heterogeneous materials like cast iron and forgings where smaller indentations would not be representative. The Brinell value correlates approximately with tensile strength by the relationship σ_UTS ≈ 3.45 × HBW (MPa). It is less suitable than Vickers or Rockwell for very hard or very thin materials due to the large indentation size.