Hardness tester

I aquired a "Hahn and Kolb mobile impact hardness tester" many years ago. never bothered to find out how to use it because I had access to other hardness testing equipment. That access has now gone so I need to find out how to use this device.

The booklet that came with the device has the necessary tables to make the hardness reading and what might be instructions for use. Problem is its in German.

Has anyone got any english information for the tool or can explain how to use it?

The tool is still available today according to the H and K website but other than that I've not been able to find any useful information.

John

These hardness testers were made by Poldi , East Germany. To use one , slide the rectangular bar between the top side of the ball and the anvil .Place the bottom of the ball on the material you are testing and strike the top of the anvil with a hammer ,the force of the hammer strike is not important . Remove the rectangular bar and using the eyepiece measure the diameter of the indentation ,similarly measure the indentation diameter on the material under test. The tables enable you to determine the Brinell hardness based on the comparison of the two results (with a known hardness value of the rectangular bar ,(it should be marked) . Used generally for tests in situ or where a conventional hardness tester couldn't be used and quite accurate .

Have never used such a device, but guess that it will involve driving a diamond or a ball into the sample, and using a graticule magnifier to measure the depression, in a similar way to Vickers or Brinell. The size of the depression can then be looked up in a chart which will give the hardness, in some unit, (VPN, Brinell or Rockwell )of the sample.

Probably intended for use by an itinerant Quality Assurance Engineer, for on the spot checks, rather than having to take a sample back to a central metallurgy laboratory.

Can be a useful instrument, if a need arises to measure harness of a workpiece, (Before and After hardening, perhaps)`

Howard

Do you have an iOS device, John ?

If so … I would recommend getting this App :

**LINK**

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/photo-translator-translate/id1359014928

It is quite astonishingly useful

MichaelG.

.

Edit:__ Here’s a quick OCR and auto-translate from your photograph

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/07/2022 16:32:17

Google Translate should do the job for PC or Android devices.

Many thanks for the replies.

Michael G, found the android equivalent of your suggestion hiding in my phone and have now translated.

I'll be in the workshop this evening so will have a go at a hardness test.

.

Please pardon my ignorance, Clive

Does that work from images … or would you need to transcribe the German text ?

MichaelG.

Hi Michael, GT is claimed to work with many forms of input including images, multiple document formats etc. etc.

I've only used it in conjunction with a PC, and then only very infrequently but it seems very versatile.

Wikipedia has a useful description Here

Thanks, Clive

… I’ve just had a look through the Wikipedia page, and found this encouraging note:

”The 'Camera input' functionality allows users to take a photograph of a document, signboard, etc. Google Translate recognises the text from the image using optical character recognition (OCR) technology and gives the translation. Camera input is not available for all languages.”

Must have a play sometime

MichaelG.

Had a go with the hardness tester last night. It soon became obvious the device was assembled incorrectly, sorted that. Checked the hardness of some aluminium castings of known hardness and was impressed with the accuracy. I then checked a casting of unknown hardness, it confirmed what I found out by machining the casting, it was up to spec.

I doubt I'll use it much, just as well, a new reference bar is £50.

I used Google lens to translate, impressive! Photographed the text with my phone and the software did the rest.

I tried using translation software some years ago, at best it gave a vague, muddled translation that needed further work, Google Lens gave what is, I think, a very good useable translation.

John

A quick attempt with android google translate on a phone was odd in that it gave me the transation overlaid on the original and hard to read when a it was a book page. But it should be a lot better from scanned docs on a PC.

I'm in process of translating a short book my dad wrote during ww2 of his memories of flying with 311 squadron. I do speak czech but within the limited vocabulary of a boy in a family and I never bothered to learn to read or write formal czech (doing a course now). I have been using google translate for part of the project and it is remarkably accurate.

I doubt younger folk would fully appreciate the cramped conditions in a Wellington during battle conditions and panic.

pgk

I doubt most people would appreciate it unless they have seen it first hand, the age is irrelevant.