scope:

This guideline provides an overview of the most commonly used methods for testing the hardness of metallic materials. The individual methods are each given a brief description. The supplementary information contains information about special aspects of the methods, and the advantages and disadvantages of the methods are also covered. This means that information about the capabilities of the individual methods can be accessed quickly and selecting a suitable test method for a particular testing task is facilitated. This guideline supplements existing standards dealing with the hardness testing of metals. In applying the methods, reference should be made to the latest version of the standards.

This guideline covers

• all standardized hardness test methods and

• non-standardized hardness test methods where these find wide application in practice.