Diamond micro-Vickers indenter

Vicker s hardness number (VHN). Hardness on Rockwell and Brinell scales are also reported for metals and alloys. In both KHN and VHN measurements, the approach is to make an indentation on the surface of the sample using a diamond micro-indenter. In the Vicker s method the indenter has the shape of a square pyramid, while in the Knoop s method it has the shape of an elongated pyramid. The indentation is generally of the order of few microns and a load of 5 to 1000 gm are used (in order to determine fracture toughness, it becomes necessary to use higher values of load (due to the necessity of initiating cracks)), VHN is given by. 

In recent years there has been much interest in the application of polymer materials at the micro- and nanoscale as microelectronic devices are made smaller and smaller. Constantinides describes an analysis and experiments of materials at the nanoscale. An instrumented pendulum device with a diamond Berkovich indenter was used to indent polymer specimens at a rate of 0.7-1.5 mm/s. The highest impact velocity (1.5 mm/s) corresponded to an impulse energy of 250 nJ. (The Berkovich nanoindenter similar to the Vickers type is normally used for testing the hardness of a material. It has a three-sided pyramid shape. It has also... 

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