JPS6088349A - Hardness tester - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the measurement of hardness even if a generated indentation is not actually measured through a microscope by a measuring operator, by providing a half mirror arranged in close vicinity to the tip of an indenter so as to be positioned on the surface crossing the movement direction of the indenter at right angles interlocking with said indenter. CONSTITUTION:The indenter attaching shaft 2 having an indenter 1 secured to the leading end thereof is constituted so as to be movable up and down in a direction vertical to the surface 5 of a specimen and can press the indenter to the surface S of the specimen under load corresponding to the wt. of a pressure wt. 3. A half mirror 4 for an interferometer interlocking with the indenter attaching shaft 2 is provided on the surface crossing the operation direction of the indenter attaching shaft 2 at right angles in close vicinity to the tip of the indenter. In addition, a semiconductor laser 5 is provided above the half mirror 4 for the interferometer and irradiates laser beam to the half mirror 4 for the interferometer from a vertical direction. The hardness of a specimen is calculated even if an indentation is not actually measured through a microscope by a measuring operator.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a hardness needle that measures the hardness of a sample by pressing an indenter against a sample surface with a predetermined load and measuring the size of the indentation produced.

(b) Conventional technology Micro Vickers is an example of this type of hardness tester.

There are various hardness testers such as Pinkers and Knoop, but these devices measure the hardness of a sample based on the area, depth, etc. of an indentation created by pressing an indenter. According to the conventional hardness tester of this kind, the area of the indentation etc. was measured by the measurer.
This placed a heavy burden on the person taking the measurements and caused problems in terms of efficiency.

For example, in a micro-Vickers hardness tester, the area of the indentation is determined by observing the indentation using an optical microscope. Especially when a large number of measurements are to be performed, the operator becomes very fatigued and the measurement efficiency is also reduced. Furthermore, in order to automatically measure an indentation once, conventionally, a TV system for imaging the sample surface, its resolution device, etc. are required, which is extremely expensive.

(c) Purpose The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is possible to determine the hardness of the sample without the need for the measurer to actually measure the resulting indentation using a microscope, etc., thereby reducing the fatigue of the measurer. The aim is to improve efficiency and provide a hardness of B1 that is easy to automate.

(D) Structure The present invention is characterized in that a half mirror that is moved integrally with the indenter is provided on a surface perpendicular to the direction of movement of the indenter near the tip of the indenter, and that the half mirror is moved integrally with the indenter.
A light source that enters monochromatic light from a direction perpendicular to the surface of the sample is installed, and the light wave interference δ is generated between the half mirror and the surface of the sample to be measured.
1, the interference output is extracted by a condensing system installed between the light source and the half mirror, and the output is guided to a measuring device consisting of a photoelectric conversion sensor and a counter to measure the penetration depth of the indenter into the sample surface. The reason is that the hardness of the sample can be determined from that value.

(e) Examples Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

The drawings are main part configuration diagrams of embodiments of the present invention.

The indenter 1 is fixed to the tip of the indenter handle ((The J axis 2 is configured to be able to move up and down in the direction perpendicular to the sample surface S, and applies a pressure r1 to the sample surface with a load corresponding to the weight of the pressure weight 3. It can be pressed to S.

A half mirror 4 for an interferometer, which is interlocked with the indenter axis 2, is provided close to the tip of the indenter 1 on a surface perpendicular to the operating direction of the indenter axis 2. A semiconductor laser 5 is provided above the interferometer half mirror 4.
The interferometer half mirror 4 can be irradiated with a laser beam from a vertical direction.

A part of this laser beam is reflected by the interferometer half mirror 4, and the rest is transmitted through the interferometer half mirror 4 and reflected by the mirror-finished sample *1 surface S. A part of the reflected light from the sample surface S passes through the interferometer half mirror 4 from below again, but the transmitted light overlaps with the previous reflected light from the interferometer half mirror 4, causing interference, and the sample surface S A bright and dark row of light is formed according to the distance 811 between the interferometer half mirror 4 and the interferometer half mirror 4. Zunawaji,
A common path type optical interferometer is formed in which the semiconductor laser 5 is used as a light source, the sample surface S is a fixed mirror, and the half mirror 4 for interference B1 is a movable mirror. The interference output is taken out by a condensing half mirror 6 disposed between the semiconductor laser 5 and the interferometer half mirror 4, is inputted to a photodiode 7 and converted into an electrical signal, and then sent to a counter. 8, the bright and dark rows are counted.

When measuring the hardness of a sample in the above-described embodiment of the present invention, first, the indenter 1 is brought into contact with the sample surface S without the pressure weight 3 placed thereon, and the counter 8 is reset. Next, a pressure weight 3 is placed and the indenter 1 is inserted into the sample surface S. At this time, the interferometer half mirror 4 approaches the sample surface S by the amount of penetration depth, and the light/dark line of the light wave interference output changes depending on the amount of movement, and the value is counted by the counter 8. By multiplying the counted value by the wavelength of the laser beam, the absolute value of the penetration depth of the indenter 1 into the sample surface S can be obtained. Since the penetration depth has a predetermined correlation with the sample hardness, it can be converted into the sample hardness based on the predetermined correlation.

In the above embodiments, the sample surface S itself was used as the fixed mirror of the light wave interferometer. However, if the flatness of the specular portion of the sample surface S is difficult to IM, another mirror surface fixed to the sample surface S may be used. can also be used separately. Further, similar results can be obtained by using predetermined monochromatic light without using a laser beam.

(f) Effects As explained above, according to the present invention, the hardness of the sample can be determined without the need for the measurer to actually measure the indentation dimensions using a microscope, etc., so the burden placed on the measurer is reduced. In addition, since the penetration depth is measured at the same time as the indenter is pressurized, this greatly contributes to speeding up the process and improving efficiency.

Further, if the present invention is applied to a micro Vickers hardness tester or the like that conventionally measures indentations using a microscope, the cost can be reduced because a microscope is no longer required. Furthermore, since data regarding the indenter penetration depth can be obtained immediately using a simple device, automation can be performed extremely easily and inexpensively, which is particularly advantageous when using a conventional TV system or the like.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a diagram showing the main part of an embodiment of the present invention. 1 - Indenter 2 - Indenter mounting shaft 3 - Pressure weight 4 - Half mirror for interference needle 5 - Semiconductor laser 6 - Half mirror for light collection - 7 - Photodiode 8 - Counter Patent applicant Shimadzu Corporation representative Patent attorney Nishi 1) New

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a device that presses an indenter against a sample surface under a predetermined load and measures the hardness of the sample based on the size of the indentation formed, an indenter located close to the tip of the indenter and perpendicular to the direction of movement of the indenter. A half mirror disposed on a surface and interlocking with the indenter, a light source that enters monochromatic light from a direction perpendicular to the half mirror, and a light source disposed between the light source and the half mirror. It consists of a condensing system for extracting the output of the light wave interferometer formed by the half mirror and the sample surface, a photoelectric conversion sensor, and a counter, and the light wave interference output extracted by the condensing system is measured by B1. 1. A hardness tester, comprising: a measuring device for measuring the hardness of a sample by calculating the amount of penetration of the indenter into the sample surface from the output of the light wave interferometer.