Measuring and testing – Hardness – By penetrator or indentor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-10
2001-10-16
Williams, Hezron (Department: 2856)
Measuring and testing
Hardness
By penetrator or indentor
C073S078000, C073S081000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301956
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
This invention relates to a hardness tester, more particularly, to a hardness tester which is preferably used for monitoring and setting a position to be measured on which an indentor bears a load.
Conventionally a well-known hardness tester has an arrangement in which a predetermined load is born on a material under test by an indentor in order to form a dent and hardness of the material is determined by a shape of the dent. With the hardness tester having the above arrangement, as described in Japan Utility Model laid open number 5-45964, the material under test is placed on a stage which can be transferred along the X and Y axes, a position to be measured is determined visually with making use of a microscope arranged above the stage and a dent is formed on the position of the material by an indentor.
The hardness tester having the above arrangement, however, has following problems.
1) In order to determine a position to be measured the stage has to be transferred on an X-Y plane. Then the larger a material under test becomes, the longer the length of transferring the stage becomes. Therefore X and Y stages become larger. The area of transferring the X and Y stages is about 4 times as large as the size of the material under test.
2) Since distance between an indentor and a stage or distance between a microscope and a stage is adjusted by moving a Z stage up and down, it might happen that the hardness of the concave portion can not be measured. In addition, a teaching operation for setting a plurality of positions to be measured becomes complex if the material under test has a convex or concave portion. The conventional teaching operation is follows: Monitor a position to be measured on a material under test with making use of the microscope, and determine and store the position, then detach the object lens of the microscope from the material by lowering the stage to avoid a possible convex portion on the material. Next, transfer the stage along the X and Y axes and monitor a next position to be measured visually and determine the position. And then move the stage upward to a focusing area of the microscope, observe the surface of the material, and determine and store the position.
3) In order to determine a position to be measured, adjust the virtual optical axis of the object lens of the microscope to a target position to be measured by transferring the stage along the X and Y axes. Then focus the microscope on the target position after the object lens is moved to approach the material and determine the target position by monitoring the position on the material. Since the stage is transferred so as to coincide the virtual optical axis of the object lens with the position to be measured visually, it takes long time or it may fail to determine the position to be measured with accuracy.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The first object of the present claimed invention is to provide a hardness tester having an arrangement in which a stroke length of the X and Y stages is shortened.
The second object of the present claimed invention is to provide a hardness tester which can measure hardness of a concave portion and which can simplify a teaching operation for setting a plurality of points to be measured on a material under test having a concave or convex portion.
The third object of the present claimed invention is to provide a hardness tester which can indicate a target position to be measured on the material under test by means of a beam of light.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object the invention has adopted the following structure, which will be explained with referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
showing an embodiment of the invention.
(1) The hardness tester in accordance with claim
1
is characterized by comprising a specimen holder
90
which places a material W under test, an indentor
55
a
which bears a load on the material W under test, a monitoring unit
45
which monitors the material W under test and a transferring mechanism
20
and
30
each of which holds the indentor and the monitoring unit integrally and which moves the indentor
55
a
and the monitoring unit
45
two-dimensionally on a plane of the specimen holder
90
.
(2) The hardness tester in accordance with claim
2
is characterized by comprising a specimen holder
90
which places a material W under test, a monitoring unit
45
which monitors the material W under test, an indentor
55
a
which bears a load on the material W under test, a first separating mechanism
40
which moves the monitoring unit
45
away from or close to the specimen holder
90
, a second separating mechanism
50
which moves the indentor
55
a
away from or close to the specimen holder
90
and a control unit
201
which drives the first and second separating mechanism
40
and
50
independently.
(3) The hardness tester in accordance with claim
3
is characterized by comprising a specimen holder
90
which places a material W under test, an indentor
55
a
which bears a load on the material W under test, a monitoring unit
45
which monitors the material W under test, an irradiating unit
70
which irradiates a beam of light on an arbitrary position of the material W under test and a transferring mechanism
20
and
30
which transfers a position on which the beam of light irradiates two-dimensionally on a plane of the specimen holder
90
.
(1) In accordance with the invention of claim
1
, the indentor
55
a
and the monitoring unit
45
are driven by the transferring mechanism
20
and
30
and move two-dimensionally on a plane of the specimen holder
90
.
(2) In accordance with the invention of claim
2
, the monitoring unit
45
moves apart from or closer to the material W under test by means of the first separating mechanism
40
and the indentor
55
a
moves apart from or closer to the material W under test by means of the second separating mechanism
50
individually.
(3) In accordance with the invention of claim
3
, the irradiating unit
70
moves two-dimensionally on a plane of the specimen holder
90
by means of the transferring mechanism
20
and
30
and the visible ray irradiated from the irradiating unit
70
is irradiated on an arbitrary position on the material W under test.
In order to make it easy to understand the invention for solving the above mentioned problems, the embodiment of the invention is used for explanation, however, the invention is not limited to the arrangement of the embodiment.
As described above, in accordance with the present claimed invention, following effects are produced.
(1) With the invention of claim
1
, since the indentor and the monitoring unit are held by the transfer mechanism integrally and they can move on a plane of the specimen holder two-dimensionally, it can prevent the transferring area of the stage from being 4 times as large as a size of the material under test like a conventional hardness tester, thereby to downsize the hardness tester.
(2) With the invention of claim
2
, since the indentor and the monitoring unit can move closer to or apart from the material under test independently, it becomes easy to conduct a teaching operation to a material having a convex or concave portion. In addition, since bearing a load on a concave portion can be conducted independently after monitoring the concave portion, it becomes easy to measure hardness of a concave portion, which used to be difficult with a conventional hardness tester.
(3) With the invention of claim
3
, since the position to be measured is indicated by a visible ray irradiated on the material by means of an irradiating unit, it becomes easy to determine a position to be measured.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5133210 (1992-07-01), Lesko et al.
patent: 5355721 (1994-10-01), Las Navas Garcia
Fujita Hideto
Fujita Yoshiyuki
Kudo Osamu
Maeda Toyokazu
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Edison Hard Co., Ltd.
Williams Hezron
Wilson Katina
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