LECO Solutions for Hardness Testing

Dave Coulston discusses what benefits can be derived from the different weld examinations and how best to prepare welds for such analyses, as well as typical weld measurements and examples of automated hardness testing of welds.

Precise measurement of carbon in carburized steel can be challenging due to changing concentrations throughout the hardened case of a sample. Glow discharge spectroscopy (GDS) offers a repeatable ability to measure carbon in a region spatially discrete from organic carbon on the near surface and in the base material. The presentation includes comparisons to other measurements, relationships to microhardness measurements, and characterization of the materials with GDS compositional depth profiles and bulk analyses. Andrew Storey, Field Sales Specialist, LECO Corporation