The size of the indentation of the indenter leaves is measured in the optical Brinell hardness test. The Brinell method uses a spherical indenter, in contrast to the similarly optical Vickers method, which presses a pyramid-shaped indenter into a specimen.

The Brinell indenter, using a predetermined ball diameter and a defined test force, leaves an indentation in the surface of a workpiece (specimen), and the greater the indentation, the softer the material being tested.

According to ISO 6506, a spherical, hard metal (tungsten carbide) indenter is pressed into a specimen (workpiece) with a specified test load to determine the Brinell hardness (HBW) (between 1 kgf and 3000 kgf).

The surface area of the residual indent on the specimen (the projection of the indent) after the test force is withdrawn the Brinell hardness (HBW), which is determined by the product of the applied test force (F in newtons (N)) and the surface area (see formula below). Because the base area of Brinell indents is frequently not perfectly round, the surface area of the residual spherical indentation is calculated using the arithmetic mean (d) of the two perpendicular diagonals (d1 and d2 in mm).

NextGen’s Universal Hardness Tester for Vickers / Knoop, Rockwell and Brinell has the holding / dwell time of 0-60s.

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