As we see it there are three reasons why you test for case depth:
- Customer Specifications.
- Quality Assurance.
- Process Control to minimize waste and rejects.
For these reasons, you need information to assess the case depth of the parts you’re manufacturing, and using the Micro Vickers sequential testing method takes significant time and manpower. You must section the part, create a sample, mount it, polish it, and run the Micro Vickers tests. Because of these high costs of time and manpower, there is a natural tendency to want to limit the amount of sampling and testing you do to a minimum, but, what if you did not have to make this tradeoff?
You can use an innovative method to increase your sampling and/or speed the processing time for your analysis of case depth, and get the information you need to meet your customer specifications, ensure your quality control, and enhance process control.
The traditional Micro Vickers testing takes typically in-excess of 45 minutes to get a result. Now you can now get the same information in under two minutes. How is it possible to get the results so much faster? When you augment your existing sampling process with a continuous Rockwell testing approach you can get the information you need to ensure quality and enhance production control in significantly less time, because you don’t have to section the part, create a sample, mount, and polish it. Instead you just put the part in the testing machine and in under 2 minutes you have your result, and because you are continuing to reference your standard Micro Vickers hardness tests on samples, you continue to operate under the same standards which are familiar to your customer.
The difference is, you get the information faster, which allows you to make changes faster. You're also able to think in terms of a higher level of service to your customer, where you can report the case depth information on a more comprehensive basis. You may choose to increase your sampling rate and use the information as a way to win new business.
Article written by: Jim Knight from King Tester Corporation. If you have questions on the new developments in hardness testing technology, contact Jim Knight at jknight@kingtester.com.