HARDNESS LABORATORY

The Hardness Laboratory at Touchstone Research Laboratory is well equipped to perform hardness testing on virtually any material including: ceramics, metals, polymers, adhesives and coatings including paints.

Most hardness testers simply place a known load (weight) on a ball or diamond indenter which sits on the flat surface of a material. How much the indentor penetrates correlates inversely to the hardness. The softer the materal, the further the penetration. Because of the wide range of material hardness, various other methods have been developed to meet that need.