Hardness testing of thin Inconel.

[Pete_K]

Hello, and thanks in advance for reading.

We have parts that are made from thin (0.003" and 0.004") Inconel X-750. This material is heat-treated, but we have no inspection criteria other than time/temp charts due to the difficulty in testing hardness of material this thin. There is a lab we use from time to time who can perform micro-hardness testing, however my boss has indicated that at some point he was aware of a portable tester that would be able to test this thin of material. I've been looking online but have only found testers with min thickness requirements of 0.040".

Does anyone know of a tester type that will work on material this thin?

Thanks again.

 

[dgallup]

Pleas don't double post

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[FACS]

You can use hardness files and get a range of surface hardness within 10 HRC of each file.
That's surface hardness only though. If you are looking for through hardness, I suggest calling the manufactures of this type of equipment, such as Buehler or Struers.

 

[EdStainless]

Microhardness is the only indentation method that I know of that would work. You would have to play around to figure out who high of a load would work. My estimate is that since you are working with a min hardness of 30HRC or 300HV you will need to use 200g or less for a load in Vickers.
If it were me though I would cut a couple small tensile coupons to be processed with each lot and then tensile test them after HT. After all the AMS specs have tensile requirements in them.

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P.E. Metallurgy