Hardness Testing for Stainless Steel

About online hardness testing in the production process of stainless steel strips

In the production process of stainless steel strips, there is a very important process, which is annealing-finishing treatment. The annealing-finishing treatment of stainless steel is usually carried out on a continuous annealing unit.

The stainless steel strip moves continuously at a certain speed. The hardness of stainless steel is mainly adjusted by changing the movement speed or adjusting the finishing reduction rate.

The hardness of stainless steel strips is a very important quality indicator. It is related to the quality and work efficiency of stamping, welding pipes and other deformed or non-deformed processing products using stainless steel strips as raw materials.

How to quickly and non-destructively test the hardness of stainless steel strips at the production site without stopping the machine, and ensure that the hardness of the final product is within the specified range by adjusting the process parameters on site. This is a difficult problem that needs to be solved in the production of stainless steel strips and cold-rolled steel strips.

The Webster hardness tester solves this problem well. This instrument has 20 scales. It uses a calibrated Rockwell hardness block with a Rockwell hardness value of 90HRB to calibrate the instrument. This hardness value is set within the range of 13 to 14 of the instrument. This instrument can be used as a simple HRB Rockwell hardness tester. It can effectively distinguish the soft, 1/8 hard, 1/4 hard, 1/2 hard and full hard states of annealed stainless steel strips.

The Webster hardness tester weighs less than 1kg. It is like a pair of pliers (commonly known as a pliers hardness tester or hardness pliers). Just pinch the steel strip. After the test, only a very small indentation is left on the steel strip. This indentation does not affect the appearance or use, and can be considered as non-destructive testing. The entire operation process only takes 1 second.

The use of this instrument may effectively solve the problems of online detection and online control of the hardness of stainless steel strips. It can effectively improve the qualified rate of stainless steel strip products, reduce the dispersion of the hardness of stainless steel strip products, and improve the quality management level of the factory. We believe that this newly improved W-B75 Webster hardness tester will be widely welcomed in the stainless steel processing industry.