Vickers Hardness Tester

A Vickers hardness tester is a precision instrument developed in 1921 by Robert L. Smith and George E. Sandland at Vickers Ltd., widely used to measure the hardness of metals, ceramics, and some polymers. It employs a square‑based diamond pyramid indenter with a 136° angle between opposite faces, which is pressed into the material surface under a controlled load (from micro‑loads as low as 1 gf to macro‑loads up to 120 kgf). After holding the load for a specified time and removing it, the tester measures the diagonal lengths of the resulting square indentation via a built‑in microscope, then calculates the Vickers hardness value (HV) as the ratio of the applied force to the surface area of the indentation. Renowned for its high precision, versatility across all hardness ranges, and suitability for thin sections, coatings, and case‑hardened layers, it has become a global standard in material science, metallurgy, and quality control per ISO 6507 and ASTM E384.