On material characterization of paper coating materials by microindentation testing

Microindentation as a method for determining important material properties of paper coating materials is studied experimentally and numerically The bulk of the investigation is concentrated upon the short-lived elastic part of a spherical indentation test, but determination of the failure stress of the coating is also discussed. The results indicate that microindentation can be a powerful tool for material characterization of these materials, but only if careful efforts arc, made to account for the influence from plasticity as well as from boundary effects.