Abstract
Many interlaboratory test programmes (ITPs) on rubber test methods have been carried out during the last 10 years. ITPs have been organized within ISO TC 45 and also in several countries such as USA, UK and Sweden. Most of these ITPs have shown that the repeatability and the reproduceability are poor for many rubber test methods. In an attempt to do more than just determine the poor precision, the authors chose four methods and decided to study them in order to identify the factors giving poor precision, thereby improving the methods. This first part contains the work done on hardness tests, both IRHD and Shore. The results show that many factors are contributing to the variation in test results, but the main factor is the influence of the operator. If we eliminate the influence of the operator and perform the test under correct temperature, load and time, we can achieve a much improved repeatability and reproduceability. This indicates that there is a need to develop more automatic, computerized hardness testers which can be sold for reasonable prices.
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