The laboratory is equipped with instruments for measuring the hardness of materials on both the macro and micro scales. Specifically, for macro-scale measurements, it has a Zwick-Roell Durajet G5 hardness tester, which is a robust semi-automatic hardness tester capable of applying a load from 9.8N to 2450N and performing standard Rockwell (HRA, HRB, HRC, and HRD), Brinell hardness tests in displacement control, and tests on polymeric materials and composites. The wide availability of indenters and the considerable range of loads, together with the software interface that allows storage and export of collected data, make this instrument extremely versatile. Adhesion measurements on thin coatings can be performed with this instrument.

The Zwick-Roell Durascan 50 automatic micro/macro scale has the capability to perform Vickers-type standardised micro/macro hardness tests with loads ranging from 0.098N to 613.16N. The instrument is equipped with a head (objectives and indenter) and a worktable, both motorised. The instrument's management software allows the user to set the test points and the relevant loads and to start the test, which therefore takes place fully automatically. 

It is also capable of making single indentations or series of indentations (Profiles and identation maps) and of automatically detecting the size of diagonals by autonomously selecting the most suitable magnification and calculating the hardness value. The instrument is equipped with 2.5x, 10x and 50x objectives.

The measurements that can be performed with this instrument are

micro-hardness profiles (welds, hardened layers);
in-plane hardness analysis on coated samples;
hardness mapping;
The laboratory is also equipped with a Struers manual microhardness tester.

The laboratory is equipped with the MTS 810 tensile testing machine. Please refer to the following link for detailed description.