Koichiro Hattori, Akihiro Ota
A ROUND ROBIN TEST OF ROKCWELL B SCALE HARDNESS
A round robin test of Rockwell B scale was carried out among the calibration class laboratories and testing class laboratories in Japan. Block calibration laboratories and general class machines are participated to the round robin test. The common indenter holder is prepared to investigate the indenter holder effect. Indenter ball (Tungsten carbide ball) is also provided and each participant uses the new ball for common and eachlaboratory’s holder, respectively. Blocks used are 30, 60, and 90 HRB and two blocks from different manufacturer is used for each level. The materials of the blocks are brass for 30 and 60 HRB and steel for 90 HRB, respectively. The variation of the test was about ±0.5 HRB for 60 and 90 HRB blocks, about ±1 HRB for 30 HRB hardness level, however, the some laboratory has large discrepancy. In addition, the hardness difference between steel (S) ball indenter and tungsten carbide ball indenter (W) is also investigated. The calculated hardness difference (S-W) is shown in Table 1. HS-W = 0.76 HRB for 90 HRB, HS-W = 0.67 HRB for 60 HRB block, HS-W = 0.90 for 30 HRB. The calculated standard deviations are 0.22, 0.26 and 0.41 HRB for 90, 60 and 30 HRB, respectively.