According to The Encyclopedia Britannica Online, the hardness of a metal is defined as "the property of a metal that gives it its ability to permanently deform under load." When metals are used in industrial parts, the Brinell hardness test uses a weight that moves a small It is important to press a carbide ball into the metal and measure the resulting indentation to determine the hardness of the material. Exceeds other hardness tests such as Rockwell and Vickers.
Other hardness tests rely on applying a fixed load to the metal, or pressing a standard-sized object into the metal, meaning that more brittle metals cannot be tested for hardness. Since the Brinell hardness test allows for accurate hardness testing while allowing both the load and the size of the ball pressed into the metal to vary, more delicate metals can be tested than other hardness tests.
Since Brinell uses spheres rather than points or cones like other hardness tests, a wider section of metal is tested. Since metals (especially alloys) can vary in strength at different points, having a wider test space to average hardness measurements is a more accurate way to measure a metal's hardness and better predict how it will withstand stress in the real world method.
Brinell hardness results are considered force independent because the force can be adjusted for metals of different sizes or strengths and the results will not be affected. This is because a sphere distributes pressure evenly along its surface, whereas a point and a cone do not. Therefore, as long as the relationship between the load and the size of the carbide ball used remains constant, the test results will accurately measure the hardness of the material being tested.
