Vickers Hardness Test (2024)

Vickers Hardness Test

The Vickers hardness test method consists of indenting the testmaterial with a diamond indenter, in the form of a right pyramid with asquare base and an angle of 136 degrees between opposite facessubjected to a load of 1 to 100 kgf. The full load is normally appliedfor 10 to 15 seconds. The two diagonals of the indentation left in thesurface of the material after removal of the load are measured using amicroscope and their average calculated. The area of the slopingsurface of the indentation is calculated. The Vickers hardness is thequotient obtained by dividing the kgf load by the square mm area ofindentation.

F= Load in kgf
d = Arithmetic mean of the two diagonals, d1 and d2in mm

HV = Vickers hardness

When the mean diagonal of the indentation has been determined theVickers hardness may be calculated from the formula, but is moreconvenient to use conversion tables. The Vickers hardness should bereported like 800 HV/10, which means a Vickers hardness of 800, wasobtained using a 10 kgf force. Several different loading settings givepractically identical hardness numbers on uniform material, which ismuch better than the arbitrary changing of scale with the otherhardness testing methods. The advantages of the Vickers hardness testare that extremely accurate readings can be taken, and just one type ofindenter is used for all types of metals and surface treatments.Although thoroughly adaptable and very precise for testing the softestand hardest of materials, under varying loads, the Vickers machine is afloor standing unit that is more expensive than the Brinell or Rockwellmachines.

Vickers Hardness Number Calculator

There is now a trend towards reporting Vickers hardness in SI units(MPa or GPa) particularly in academic papers. Unfortunately, this cancause confusion. Vickers hardness (e.g. HV/30) value should normally beexpressed as a number only (without the units kgf/mm²).Rigorous application of SI is a problem. Most Vickers hardness testingmachines use forces of 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 50 and 100 kgf and tables forcalculating HV. SI would involve reporting force in newtons (compare700 HV/30 to HV/294 N = 6.87 GPa) which is practically meaningless andmessy to engineers and technicians. To convert a Vickers hardnessnumber the force applied needs converting from kgf to newtons and thearea needs converting form mm² to m² to giveresults in pascals using the formula above.

To convert HV to MPa multiply by 9.807
To convert HV to GPa multiply by 0.009807

Or use conversion calculator

Links To:

Hardness Testing

Rockwell Hardness Test

Rockwell Superficial Hardness Test

Brinell Hardness Test

Vickers Hardness Test

Microhardness Test

Mohs Hardness Test

Scleroscope and other hardness testing methods

Hardness Conversion Tables and Charts:

Hardness Conversion Table(colour version - may take time to load)

Hardness Conversion Table(non-colour version)

Hardness Conversion Chart (1)

Hardness Conversion Chart (2)

Chart of Brinell, Vickers and Ultimate Tensile Strength Equivalents (1)

Chart of Brinell, Vickers andUltimate Tensile Strength Equivalents (2)

Hardness Conversion Table related to Rockwell C Hardness Scale (hard materials) (colour)

Vickers Hardness Test (2024)