Effect of load reduction speed - Variation of material properties during Martens hardness testing.

For micro components and compounds material properties, as for instance Young's modulus, tensile strength and fracture strain, can often not be measured or only by extensive experiments. But, values of those properties are highly important for quality management during fabrication of such products. In particular, strength values are assessed by correlation to the micro hardness of such materials. But, other material properties still cannot be determined exactly by such procedures. By the principle of registered hardness testing, better known by universal and standardized Martens hardness testing, this changed during the past 15 years. In the present contribution, it is demonstrated how the indentation modulus and the so called plastic Martens hardness depend at such procedure on load reduction speed.