Brinell hardness

n.
The relative hardness of metals and alloys, determined by forcing a steel ball into a test piece under standard conditions and measuring the surface area of the resulting indentation.

[After Johan August Brinell (1849-1925), Swedish engineer.]

A measure of resistance of a material to indentation; obtained by use of a machine which presses a standard hard steel or carbide ball into the material, under standard loading conditions; expressed by the Brinell hardness number—the higher the number, the harder the material.

Brinell hardness tester

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