JP2641953B2 - Method and apparatus for testing physical properties of material with small indentation - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for measuring physical properties such as mechanical properties near the surface of various solid materials. More specifically, the present invention pushes the indenter to the surface of the test material with a minute load to a minute shallow depth, changes the load at the time of indentation and withdrawal of the indenter, and measures each load and the indentation depth. Alternatively, while changing the indentation depth of the indenter, the indentation load required for the indentation is measured, and the physical properties near the surface of the test material are measured from the relationship between the measured indentation load and the indentation depth.

[Prior art] In various industrial fields, several μm near the surface of a solid material is used.
It is desired to measure physical properties such as mechanical properties of the portion m. For example, in the field of the nuclear industry, it is necessary to measure physical properties of the surface of a material in the vicinity of the surface in order to ascertain deterioration of the surface of the material due to radiation, change in characteristics, and the like. In addition to this, such measurement is also required when measuring the physical properties of a thin synthetic resin film or measuring the physical properties of a coating film, a paint, and the like. Also in the field of the semiconductor industry, it is necessary to measure the physical properties of a thin film of a circuit pattern attached to the surface of a chip.

Conventionally, a microhardness tester is used to measure physical properties near the surface of such a test material. This micro hardness tester is basically the same as a conventional hardness tester, except that the load applied to the indenter is tens of mg, the indentation depth of the indenter is extremely shallow, and only the physical properties near the surface of the test material are measured. Can be measured.

However, when the indentation depth of the indenter is extremely small, the accuracy of the measured hardness is greatly reduced. In other words, at the very early stage when this indenter starts to contact the surface of the test material, the deformation of this surface depends on the shape of the indenter, and its main component is elastic deformation, and the indentation corresponding to this indenter becomes smaller. This causes an error that the apparent hardness becomes extremely high. The surface roughness also causes such measurement errors. In the case where the indentation depth of the indenter is extremely shallow as described above, according to the conventional method, it is impossible to separate and estimate the amount of plastic deformation, and therefore it is impossible to accurately evaluate the hardness or tensile strength. could not.

As an improvement over the conventional method, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
There is a microhardness tester as disclosed in JP-A-69141 and JP-A-62-231136. These objects are intended to reduce the error by pushing the indenter while changing the pushing load of the indenter, continuously or stepwise measuring the relationship between each load and the pushing depth. However, these premise that the load of the indenter and the indentation depth are almost proportional, that is, the surface of the test material is plastically deformed in response to the indentation of the indenter. Therefore, these materials do not provide an essential solution to the problem of accurately measuring physical properties in the vicinity of the surface of the material, and are intended for measurement of the surface of the material in a range of several μm to several tens μm. And

However, recently, there has been a demand for higher-precision measurement of physical properties near the surface of a material. In order to meet such a demand for higher accuracy of measurement, 1 μm
It is required to measure the physical properties of only an extremely shallow portion of m or less. When such an extremely shallow partial indenter is pushed, the influence of elastic deformation and surface roughness of the material becomes extremely large, and the relationship between the load of the indenter and the pushing depth becomes complicated, resulting in a problem that the accuracy is greatly reduced.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and provides a method and an apparatus for extremely accurately and easily measuring the physical properties of only a very shallow portion near the surface of a material. It is.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The measuring method according to the present invention provides a method for measuring the physical properties of the surface of a test material in the vicinity of the surface.
The indenter is pushed into and pulled out from the surface of the test material while changing the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d during the indentation process and in the withdrawal process. Is applied to equations approximating equations corresponding to physical properties such as hardness, tensile strength or Young's modulus of the test material, and constants of these equations are calculated, and from this constant the hardness or tensile strength of the test material, or It calculates physical properties such as Young's modulus.

Further, the device of the present invention includes an indenter arm rotatably supported by a bearing mechanism. The indenter arm has an indenter arm, a drive arm, and a load arm protruding therefrom. An indentation load mechanism and a load detector for calibration for detecting the indentation load are provided.

[Operation] The measuring method of the present invention relates the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d measured in the process of indentation and indentation of the indenter to the physical properties such as hardness, tensile strength or Young's modulus near the surface of the material. Since the physical properties of the test material are calculated by calculating these constants by applying equations that approximate constants, the physical properties of the test material can be accurately measured even in extremely shallow regions near the surface of the test material, which could not be measured conventionally. Can be measured.

Further, according to the apparatus of the present invention, the measuring method of the present invention as described above can be automatically performed. In addition, the driving force and reaction force of the indenter, the indentation load mechanism, the load detector, and the like are all balanced as the torque of the indenter arm rotatably and stably supported by the bearing mechanism. Not only in the withdrawal process,
It is possible to stably control and detect the indentation load and the indentation depth of the indenter, and to perform accurate calibration with the load detector described above, thereby enabling accurate and stable measurement.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, a measuring apparatus for carrying out the measuring method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In order to perform the above-described measurement, the measuring device itself must have high accuracy, and various considerations have been given to the measuring device in order to achieve this high accuracy.

FIG. 1 schematically shows the entire measuring apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a measuring machine, which is housed in an airtight container 2. The measuring device 1 includes a measuring and controlling device 3
Is connected, and the measurement / control device 3 is disposed outside the airtight container 2. In addition, this airtight container 2
Is connected to a vacuum pump 4 via an on-off valve 5.
The inside of the airtight container 2 is configured to be evacuated or evacuated. Reference numeral 6 denotes an opening valve. By opening the opening valve 6, the inside of the airtight container 2 can be returned to the atmospheric pressure. Reference numeral 7 denotes a pressure gauge, and the pressure inside the airtight container 2 is displayed by the pressure gauge 7.
Note that the inside of the airtight container 2 is replaced with an inert gas as necessary to prevent oxidation of the test material and the like.

The measuring device 1 is housed in the airtight container 2 as described above, and during measurement, the door is closed and the inside of the airtight container 2 is evacuated to a vacuum, so that there is no vibration or fluctuation of air, and measurement accuracy is improved. .

A pushing load mechanism 40 is arranged corresponding to the tip of the drive arm 32 described above. This indentation load mechanism 40
The solenoid is composed of a solenoid and a plunger 41. The solenoid is mounted on the frame 20 side, and the plunger 41 is mounted on the drive arm 32 side. A current is supplied to the solenoid 42 from a load current supply device 43 shown in FIG. 5, and the plunger 41 is attracted to apply a torque to the indenter arm 30 so that the indenter 36 corresponds to the value of the load current. It is configured to be pushed into the test material with the given pushing load. The indentation load of the indenter 36 can be adjusted within a range from 1 mg to several g.

Above the tip of the indenter arm 31, a push-in depth detector 50 is disposed. The indentation depth detector 50 uses an optical displacement meter, detects the displacement of the tip of the indenter arm 31 with an accuracy of, for example, 10 nm, detects the indentation depth of the indenter, and Convert to a signal. The indentation depth detector 50 is configured to be able to be accurately positioned by the micrometer heads 51 and 52.

Further, a load detector 60 is attached to the frame side corresponding to the tip of the load arm 33.
Further, a protruding member 37 is provided at a distal end portion of the load arm portion 33 at a position symmetrical to the indenter 36 with respect to the bearing mechanism 70. Then, the protrusion 37 is connected to the load detector 60 described above.
Contact 62. This load detector 60 can detect the load with an accuracy of mg.
The indenter arm 30 is used to measure the torque of the indenter arm 30 to calibrate the indentation load mechanism 40.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the measurement / control device 3 described above. The measurement / control circuit 3 includes a measurement / control circuit 90.
This circuit performs control, calibration, and processing of the measurement result of the measuring device 1 as described later. The measurement / control circuit 90 sends a control signal to the above-described load current supply device 53, and
The current supplied to the solenoid 42 is controlled to control the pressing load of the indenter 36 in a predetermined pattern. The load current supplied from the load current supply device 43 is detected by a current detector 94, converted into a digital signal by an A / D converter 93, and fed back to the measurement / control circuit 90. Further, the signals from the above-described indentation depth detector 50 and load detector 60 are also amplified by the amplifiers 92 and 96, respectively, and are converted into digital signals by the A / D converters 91 and 95.
It is configured to be sent to the measurement / control circuit 90 described above.

The measurement / control circuit 90 is programmed to calibrate the indentation load mechanism 40 as described below. First, prior to the measurement or periodically, the load detector 60 is moved downward, and the contact 62 is brought into contact with the projection 37 of the indenter arm 30. When the measurement / control device 3 is operated, a control signal is output from the measurement / control circuit 90 to the load current supply device 43, and the current i supplied from the load current supply device 43 to the solenoid 42 is As shown in FIG. 3, the value is increased stepwise by a constant Δi at regular time intervals Δt. When the solenoid 42 is energized, torque is generated in the indenter arm 30, and the protrusion 37 presses the contact 62 of the load detector 60, and the load is detected. The protrusion 37 is provided with the indenter 36 and the bearing mechanism 70.
Are located symmetrically with respect to
Is equal to the indentation load actually acting on the indenter 36 during the measurement. The load w detected by the load detector 60 increases stepwise by Δw corresponding to the increase of the load current i. And the above measurement
The control circuit 90 performs a load current i _{(1... N)} as shown in FIG. 4 and a load w as shown in FIG.
_{(1... N)} are respectively recorded, and the relationship between the current and the load is approximated to the equation of w = s · i + T as shown in FIG. S and T are constants, respectively. As is apparent from FIG. 6, the above constant S is the load T, that is, the increase in the pushing load with respect to the increase in the load current i, and this S is the coil sensitivity of the solenoid 42. Therefore, by calculating the values of S and T in this way, the load current i corresponding to an arbitrary pushing load is determined. Note that the above calculation is automatically performed in the measurement and control circuit 90 and is automatically stored, and the result is displayed or printed out as necessary.

Further, the measurement / control circuit 90 is programmed so as to automatically calibrate the indentation depth detector 50 as described below. First, prior to calibration, the indenter arm 30 is locked so as not to rotate. Next, the amount of movement and the number of steps of the indentation depth detector for each step at the time of calibration are input to the measurement and control circuit 90. Note that such setting may be performed in advance. Then, when the measurement and control device 3 is operated,
The output from the depth detector 50 is the measurement / control circuit 90
Is entered and recorded. Next, the measurement / control circuit 90
Is instructed to perform the calibration in the next step. The operator operates the direct-acting micrometer 51 in accordance with this command, and moves the depth detector 50 to the indenter arm 30 by a predetermined displacement amount Δl.
To move against. Next, the output from the depth detector 50 is received and recorded by the measurement / control circuit 90. Less than,
Similarly, the movement amount of the depth detector 50 and its output are measured. FIG. 7 shows the relationship between the movement amount l and the output V measured in this way. From such characteristics, the relation between l and V is applied to the relational expression of V = k · l + M, and the constant k is calculated. The constant k is the inclination of the straight line shown in FIG. 7, that is, the sensitivity of the indentation depth detector 50. And this measurement and control circuit
90 stores the value of k, and uses the sensitivity k to accurately calculate the actual depth of the indenter 36 from the output from the depth-of-press detector 50 in the actual measurement.

Next, the operation of such a measuring device and a measuring method performed using such a measuring device will be described.

First, the measurement / control device 3 is operated. The measurement / control circuit 90 controls the load current supply device 43 according to a preset pattern, increases the load current supplied to the solenoid 42 continuously or stepwise, and acts on the indenter 36. The indentation load is increased continuously or stepwise. Thereby, this indenter 36
It is sequentially pushed into the surface of the test material. Then, when the indenter is pushed to a predetermined indentation depth, the load current is reduced continuously or stepwise, and the pushing load acting on the indenter 36 is reduced continuously or stepwise. As a result, the indenter 36 is sequentially pulled out.

In the pushing process and the pulling process, the pushing load F of the indenter 36 is obtained from the load current i.
The indentation depth d is measured based on the signal from the indentation depth detector 50, and the relationship between the load F and the indentation depth d is measured continuously or stepwise. It is stored in the measurement / control circuit 90. From these measurement results, physical properties such as tensile strength and Young's modulus near the surface of the test material are calculated.

Next, the process of calculating the physical properties of the test material from the above measurement results will be described by exemplifying measurement examples performed on some specific test materials.

The test materials not used in this exemplary test were aluminum alloy (A2017), phosphor bronze, stainless steel (SUS304),
Silicon with a polished surface, rolled gold,
Nickel and platinum.

The indenter used was a diamond indenter with a triangular pyramid of 115 mm across each edge, and the rate of change of the indentation load of this indenter was
10-100 mg / sec. Under these conditions, an indenter was pressed into each test material, held for 1 second after reaching a maximum load of 1000 mg, and then pulled out at the same load change rate as in the pressing process. In the pushing process and the pulling process, the pushing load F and the pushing depth d of the indenter were continuously measured. The result is shown in FIG. Since the tip shape of the indenter is known in advance, the indentation depth d of the indenter can be used to calculate the size of the indentation that the indenter would have formed, and the apparent Vickers hardness of these test materials according to the conventional method. When H is calculated, it is calculated by the formula of H = F / S = 0.03784 · F / d ² (1).

FIG. 9 shows the result of calculating the hardness H of each test material by such a conventional method. As evident from this result,
In the shallow region as illustrated, a large error occurs in the apparent hardness. In particular, the error becomes extremely large in a region of 100 nm or less. This is due to the fact that the tip of the indenter is not always geometrically sharp, the elastic deformation of the test material precedes the initial stage of contact, and the surface roughness of the test material. Therefore, the conventional method cannot accurately grasp the physical properties of the material in such a shallow range.

In this invention, the relationship between the load F and the indentation depth d in the pushing area of a large area of influence of the elastic deformation and surface roughness of such a shallow region or the test material, FA · d + B · d 2 ... (2) Where A and B are constants; A and B are constants. The first term of the equation (2) corresponds to elastic deformation and surface roughness of the material, and the second term corresponds to plastic deformation of the test material. This equation (2) holds when plastic deformation and elastic deformation of the material coexist.
Since this plastic deformation occurs when the indentation load and the yield stress of the material are balanced, the above constant B corresponds to the Vickers hardness Hv of this material.

When the above equation (2) is divided by d, F / d = A + Bd (3) FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 show the results of actual measurement of each of the above test materials in the relationship between F / d and d as shown in equation (3). Figures 10 and 11
As is apparent from the figure, the relationship between F / d and d is 100 nm
An extremely linear relationship is maintained up to the following regions.
Then, as schematically shown in FIG. 12, the inclination in the pushing process, that is, B corresponds to the Vickers hardness. Since the tensile strength σ _B of the material and the Vickers hardness Hv have a relationship of Hv 0.31 σ _B (MPa) (4), the tensile strength can be easily calculated from the Vickers hardness. FIG. 13 shows the values of B and Hv of each test material actually measured as described above.
It is clear that they correspond exactly to logical values.

Also, in the process of pulling out the indenter, it is considered that the recovery force of the elastic deformation of the indented portion and the load of the indenter are balanced. Unlike the plastic deformation, this elastically deformed portion is considered to have been elastically deformed over a wider range than the portion where the indenter is in direct contact. However, in any case, the area S of the elastically deformed portion is proportional to the area where the indenter is in direct contact, that is, d ^2, and the depth t of the elastically deformed portion is the indentation depth d of the indenter. It is considered to be proportional to Also, in the initial stage of the drawing process, it is considered that the indenter is in full contact with the test material, so that the maximum indentation load is F _m , the maximum indentation depth is d _m , and the Young's modulus of the material is E. , (F−F _m ) / SE (d−d _m ) / t (5) Here, if ^{_{S = αd m 2, t =}} βd m, the equation (5) _{is, F / d m α / β} · E · (d-d m) + F m / d m ... (6) Becomes Furthermore, in the initial pull-out process, because it is dd _m, the equation (6) is, D = α / β ·
As E, the F / d = D (d- d m) + F m / d m ... (7). Also in the actual measurement results of FIGS. 10 and 11, the relationship of this equation (7) is extremely close to a straight line. Therefore, the Young's modulus E of the material is determined from the slope, ie, D.

FIG. 14 shows the relationship between D and Young's modulus E calculated from the result of the actual measurement. As is clear from FIG. 14, the actual measured value exactly corresponds to the logical value. The relationship between D and E is D3.61 · E (MPa) (8).

As described above, according to the method of the present invention, even in a very shallow region of 100 nm or less near the surface of the test material, the physical properties can be measured very accurately.

The apparatus of the present invention performs the above-mentioned measurement automatically and accurately. That is, in the above-described measuring method of the present invention, the indentation load and the indentation depth of the indenter are minute, and it is necessary to accurately control and measure these.

Therefore, even if a slight backlash or deformation occurs in the mechanism for supporting the indenter, these influence the measurement of the indentation depth of the indenter and cause a decrease in measurement accuracy. As a means for accurately supporting the indenter as described above, there is a conventional means in which an indenter is attached to a lever rotatably supported by a knife edge, and a pushing load is applied from a pushing mechanism via the lever.

However, the hindrance caused by the knife edge has the advantage of extremely small turning resistance, but on the other hand, the load is supported by the sharp edge, so that if the hindrance load changes, the amount of deformation of the edge changes. Or
Also, the resistance at the time of the rotation may change. Therefore, when a knife-edge-type support mechanism is employed in the apparatus for performing the measurement method of the present invention, the load supported by the knife edge changes during the indenter withdrawing process and the withdrawing process. A hysteretic change occurs in the bearing characteristics, which affects the balance of the various loads acting on the arm and the indentation depth of the indenter, causing an error in the measurement.

In the device of the present invention, in order to eliminate such effects,
As described above, the indenter arm 30 is rotatably supported by the bearing mechanism 70, the indenter 36 is attached to the indenter arm 31 of the indenter arm 30, and the solenoid 42 of the pushing drive mechanism 40 is connected to the drive arm 32. In addition, a load detector 60 for calibration is connected to the load arm section 33 so that various loads acting on the indenter arm 30 are all balanced as the torque of the indenter arm 30.

The bearing mechanism 70 as described above can easily obtain a high-precision one such as a precision ball bearing, has a large bearing area, and is resistant to a slight change in the bearing load due to deformation, rotation resistance, and the like. The bearing characteristics of this are hardly changed, and this bearing characteristic is independent of the direction of the load. Therefore, in both the pushing process and the pulling process, even if a change occurs in the equilibrium state of the various loads described above, the bearing characteristics of the bearing mechanism 70 hardly change, and accurate measurement can be performed.

However, the bearing mechanism 70 as described above has much greater rotational resistance than the above-mentioned knife edge, and therefore, it is necessary to calibrate it. In this device, this calibration is performed by the load detector 60 provided corresponding to the load arm 33 of the indenter arm 30. In this calibration, the relationship between the indentation load applied by the indentation load mechanism 40 and the load acting on the load detector 60 in a state where the indenter 36 is not in contact with the test material as described above is determined. Made by As a result, the indentation load mechanism
At the same time as the calibration of the coil sensitivity S of the 40 solenoids 42, the calibration can be performed by eliminating errors such as the rotational resistance of the bearing mechanism 70 described above. In addition, in this device, the indentation load acting on the indenter, the load of the indentation load mechanism, the load acting on the load detector, etc. all act as torque of the indenter arm 30 and are balanced. The indenter arm is used when detecting the load with the detector and when the indenter applies a pushing load in actual measurement.
This is almost the same state where a torque equal to 30 is acting, and this calibration can be performed accurately.

[Effects] As described above, the measuring method of the present invention measures the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d measured in the process of indentation and indentation of the indenter, and determines the hardness,
The physical properties such as tensile strength or Young's modulus are applied to the above-mentioned equations which are constants, and the physical properties of the test material are calculated by obtaining these constants. As described above, this equation accurately corresponds to the physical properties of the material even in a shallow region of the material, and therefore, even in an extremely shallow region near the surface of the test material, which could not be measured by the conventional method, this formula can be used. The physical properties can be accurately measured, and the measurement can be easily performed.

Further, the apparatus of the present invention is arranged such that the indenter arm is rotatably supported by a bearing mechanism, an indenter is attached to the tip of the indenter arm of the indenter arm, and a push mechanism is inserted into the tip of the drive arm. And a load detector for calibration is provided at the tip of the load arm. Therefore, since this indenter arm is rotatably and stably supported by the bearing mechanism,
It is possible to accurately and stably control and detect the indentation load and the indentation depth not only in the indenter pushing process but also in the pulling process. Further, an error component such as a rotation resistance of the bearing mechanism is calibrated by the load detector, and at this time, the indenter, the pushing drive mechanism,
Since forces such as the driving force and the reaction force of the load detector are all balanced as the torque of the indenter arm, there is an effect that this calibration can be performed accurately.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the entire apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a measurement / control device, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing changes in load current supplied, and FIG. 4 is a current detector. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the state of the load detected by the load detector, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the load current and the load, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between the displacement of the depth detector and the output, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between the load of various test materials and the indentation depth, and FIG. 9 is a graph showing the apparent hardness of each test material. The diagrams shown, FIGS. 10 and 11 show the various test materials.
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the relationship between F / d and d, FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating the relationship of FIG. 1, FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between hardness of various test materials and B, and FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between Young's modulus and D of various materials. FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Measuring machine, 2 ... Airtight container, 3 ... Measurement / control device, 4 ... Vacuum pump, 30 ... Indenter arm, 40 ... Push load mechanism, 50 ... Push depth detector, 60 ... … Load detector, 70… Bearing mechanism.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-62-39743 (JP, A) JP-A-59-3340 (JP, A) JP-A-62-69141 (JP, A) 101950 (JP, U) Real opening Hei 3-101447 (JP, U)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for measuring physical properties of a surface of a test material by pushing an indenter into the surface of the test material, wherein the indenter applies a force F or an indentation depth d to the surface of the test material while changing the indentation load F or the indentation depth d. A step of continuously or stepwise measuring the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d in the indentation step, and the indentation load F or the indentation depth d applied to the indenter. A step of pulling out the indenter from the surface of the test material while changing it; a step of continuously or stepwise measuring the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d in the withdrawal step; The relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d in the indentation process is expressed by the following equation: F / d = A + B · d Obtaining a hardness or tensile strength of the test material as an amount proportional to the constant B. 2. A method for measuring physical properties of a surface of a test material by pushing an indenter into the surface of the test material, wherein the indenter applies a force F or an indentation depth d applied to the indenter to the surface of the test material. A step of continuously or stepwise measuring the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d in the indentation step, and the indentation load F or the indentation depth d applied to the indenter. A step of pulling out the indenter from the surface of the test material while changing it; a step of continuously or stepwise measuring the relationship between the indentation load F and the indentation depth d in the withdrawal step; above indentation load formula F / d _m relationship for the next F and an indentation depth d F / d = D (d -d m) + F m / d m However in pulling the course of, F _m is the outermost Indentation load during pushing, d _m is the maximum indentation when the indentation depth, D is a constant; is approximated to the relationship, process of obtaining the Young's modulus of the test material as a quantity proportional to the constant D, and capital A measuring method characterized by comprising: 3. The indenter is pushed into the surface of the test material and pulled out while changing the indentation load or indentation depth applied to the indenter, and the relationship between the indentation load and the indentation depth is continuously detected in the indentation process and in the withdrawal process. A measuring device for implementing the method for measuring the physical properties of the surface of the test material from the above relationship, wherein the measuring device is rotatably supported by a bearing mechanism and has an indenter arm, a drive arm, and a load arm. The indenter arm includes a radially protruding indenter arm, and includes an indenter having a predetermined tip shape provided at a distal end portion of the indenter arm portion of the indenter arm, and a distal end portion of the drive arm portion of the indenter arm. A continuously or stepwise pushing of the indenter by applying a continuously or stepwise torque to the indenter arm provided; A weight mechanism, provided at the tip of the load arm of the indenter arm, for detecting the torque applied to the indenter arm and detecting the indentation load applied to the indenter at the tip of the indenter arm. A load detector, a pressing depth detecting mechanism for detecting the pressing depth of the indenter, and controlling the load of the pressing load mechanism to change the pressing load or the pressing depth acting on the indenter. The above-mentioned indenter is pushed into the surface of the test material, and the pushed-in indenter is pulled out while changing the indentation load or the indentation depth, and receives the signal from the indentation depth detection mechanism, and receives the indentation load and the indenter. And a measurement and control device for calculating the physical properties of the test material from the relationship with the indentation depth of the test material and for calibrating the device based on the signal from the load detector. Measuring device characterized in that. 4. The indentation load mechanism according to claim 3, wherein said indentation load mechanism is a solenoid, and said measurement and control device controls an indentation load by controlling a current supplied to said solenoid. measuring device. 5. The indentation depth detection mechanism includes an optical displacement gauge, and the optical displacement gauge detects displacement of a portion of the indenter arm to which the indenter is attached. The measuring device according to claim 3, wherein the measuring device is a device.