What is a Portable Hardness Tester?

A portable hardness tester allows you to test the hardness of a metal without having to transport the metal to a large stationary machine. A portable hardness tester makes testing metals for your customers' orders much easier or for testing metal before using it to create your parts. A portable hardness tester for Rockwell testing is a small hand-held tester with an "impact device" attached that sends the information back to the computer where a mathematical formula determines the hardness of your metal. This is vital because your metals must have a specific hardness value in order to be used for a particular application. Popular portable hardness testers are manufactured by Phase II and Mitutoyo. The most popular and versatile portable hardness tester for Brinell testing is the King portable hardness tester.

What are Hardness Test Blocks?

Hardness test blocks, traceable to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), are manufactured by a number of American hardness test block manufacturers such as WESTport Corporation. The different hardness test block types are Rockwell, Brinell and Microhardness test blocks (also referred to as to as Knoop and Vickers test blocks). These hardness test blocks help you to measure your metals against a standard. Hardness test blocks are calibrated to a particular hardness value and verify the accuracy of your portable hardness tester or bench model hardness tester. This verifies that your measurements are in compliance with industry standards.

What are Special Taps?

Special taps come in a variety of types such as high speed steel, carbide, cobalt, taper, plug, bottom, fluteless, or spiral flute taps. Special taps are a cutting tool that cuts internal threads and are manufactured in compliance with specifications from ANSI standards (American National Standards Institute). Blank dimensions refer to the steel cylindrical blank from which special taps are manufactured. Special taps may be different from standard tap design criteria as it relates to thread type, size, shape, number of threads per inch and so on.

What is a Durometer?

A Durometer is used to measure the hardness of non-metallic materials, such as rubber, plastic, foam, wood, etc. A durometer works by measuring the depth of an indentation in the material created by a standardized given force. The basic durometer test requires applying the force in a consistent manner, without shock measuring the hardness (depth of the indentation). If a timed hardness is desired, force is applied for the specified time and then calculated. There are several scales of durometer, used for materials with different properties. The two most common durometer scales are the ASTM D2240 type A and type D scales. The A durometer scale is for softer plastics, while the D durometer scale is for harder ones. However, there are a total of 12 durometer scales; types A, B, C, D, DO, E, M, O, OO, OOO, OOO-S, and R. Each scale results in a value between 0 and 100, with higher values indicating a harder material.
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