A New Device for High-Accuracy Measurements of the Hardness Depth Profile in Steels

A novel device based on photothermal radiometry is here developed and validated for the NDE and Testing of steels. The use of such an instrument from one side strongly reduces the measurement time of the standard hardness and other mechanical tests, and from the other side allows to performing cheap nondestructive and noninvasive measurements easy to be automatized. A detailed description of both the hardware and the software implemented for the reconstruction of the hardness depth profile will be given in the presentation. The results on gears show the relevant impact in the field of quality control of mechanical components used in many military sector