Over the past 90 years, the Vickers test has proved to be an all-around respectable performer in a wide variety of applications, some of which the inventors never dreamed possible.
The Vickers hardness test, an offshoot of the venerable Brinell test, has been used since the early 1920s. Although the concept of using one test method to cover a wide range of materials hasn’t changed much in the last 90 years, upgrades to the equipment used to perform the test have expanded its use and accuracy.
The Vickers hardness number is the load (test force) over the resulting area of the diamond impression, and can be calculated by the formula: