A finger-like hardness tester based on the contact electromechanical impedance of a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever.

Abstract

We proposed a finger-like hardness tester based on the electromechanical impedance of a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever. A Vickers indenter was fabricated to the free end of the bimorph to contact the sample. The contact force was monitored by a strain gauge and the contact area was obtained by tracking the bimorph's resonance frequency. The bimorph-sample contact system was modeled by the electromechanical equivalent circuit method. Verification experiments on standard hardness samples were conducted and the measured hardness values agreed well with those given by a conventional Vickers hardness tester. Further hardness measurement on a gear wheel showed that the proposed hardness tester is very adaptive and can be used for inner surface testing or in situ testing, where other hardness testers may not be applicable. The proposed hardness tester can be regarded as an improved ultrasonic hardness tester.