From the production of agricultural equipment, construction machines or machine tools to cranes and car wash installations through to large industrial plants – hardness testing plays a very important role in quality assurance in mechanical engineering.
Specimens can vary widely in size – from small (e.g. gear wheels in gear motors) to large (e.g. in the testing of welded joints on components of a car wash installation or a gear wheel for a wind turbine measuring several metres in diameter).
Frequently, large numbers of the same part are tested, so a high degree of automation in the hardness testing process and the possibility of unmanned testing are key criteria in selection of the appropriate hardness testing machine.