Different type of Hardness Testers
The toughness and solidity of plastics are measured efficiently with the Rockwell Hardness Tester or Durometer Tester. Both the testing strategies help to ascertain that how well a plastic material will resist the indentation and offers precise hardness value. This value does not automatically correlate the fundamental characteristics of plastics. Shore Hardness Tester is usually applied to soft types of plastics such as elastomers or rubbers. To perform the hardness test on plastic, the appropriate scale is used to measure the hardness of plastics. One of the best types of scales to perform the same is Shore Hardness Scales. Other kinds of plastics that are much softer in nature make use of softer plastics where shore A can be applied including fluoropolymers, polyolefin, and vinyl. The Shore D scale, on the other hand, is used to test the harder materials. Apart from shore A and Shore D, other hardness scales are also available in the market such as Shore O and Shore H, but they are not used to test the hardness of plastics.
Test Hardness of Plastics with Shore Hardness Tester
While measuring the hardness of certain kind of plastics, an indenter is inserted into the sample. A needle is placed beside the specimen and pressure is applied to it. If the device has been forced on the material and the needle has entered into the material easily, the measurement needle will sense the hardness of the material and displays the results on the screen. Depending upon the flexibility of rubbers and plastics the indentation on the durometer changes accordingly. As it was already discussed that there are different types of scales that are used to measure the hardness of the different materials, Shore hardness testers are designed to create a point of reference for the people who are dealing with plastics. To ascertain the hardness of the plastics, shore hardness is the essential features that help to determine the best quality plastics according to the appropriate application.