Hi there, I suggest that you are perhaps looking for a 'BARCOL' hardness test, suggest you contact 'Elcometer Instruments' in Manchester, England, they should be able to clarify your query, after all they sell the Barcol Hardness Tester.

A Barcol tester won't work on such a thin coating, you'll get way too much effect of the substrate.  You need at least 50-75 mils of coating to use the Barcol indenter.  I haven't found a good hardness measurement for thin (<10 mils) coatings, would be curious to see what responses you get.

What about a standard microhardness or nanohardness  tester (http://www.csm-instruments.com/): the indentation depth must be less than 1/10 of the coating thickness in order to have the coating hardness uninfluenced by the substrate.

chiaraP:
thanks for the information, I appreciate it.
steved

Wow, an ancient thread that was resurrected, and the originator is still around.  This has to be a first for Eng-Tips.

Ok, putting my awe and wonderment aside, chiaraP's suggestion to investigate micro or nanohardness indentation is a good one.  Anodic coatings can be quite thick (greater than 10 micrometers), and therefore appropriate for microhardness testing.  We routinely use Vickers hardness with a 0.05 kg (50 g) indentation load to measure the hardness of chromium electroplating ( ~ 900 HV at 15-20 micrometer thickness).  Vickers microhardness can be done with loads as low as 1 g.

TVP- thank you for the information. I am still around, same company but a different job.
Steved

Depending on the coating a shore A or shore D can be used.  If you are trying to determine cure, then DSC or DTMA (both destructive).

gvanbeek:

Thank you for the reply, I will pass teh nformation on.
Steved