Awarded RFQ - Micro-hardness Indentation Machine

The National Physical Laboratory [NPL] requirement is for a piece of equipment to enable low-load and micro-hardness testing of materials. The purpose is to replace a previous piece of equipment that is at its end of life.

The equipment must be able to perform low-load and microhardness Vickers and Knoop hardness testing at loads ranging from 10 gf to 2 kgf (or 0.098 N to 20 N) in a traceable manner such as through calibration to approved standards (such as BS ISO 4516). The equipment must also be able to meet all minimum requirements as laid out in such standards and will ideally exceed them as is stated below. It would also be preferential for the equipment to have additional functionality in the form of being able to measure load/displacement curves during the indentation, and the ability to conduct tests at different load cycle timings.