Effect and measurement of the machine compliance in the macro range of instrumented indentation test

The contribution concerns the strong effect of the machine compliance in the upper macro range of the instrumented indentation test on hard materials. To achieve a minimum uncertainty in determination of the machine compliance the measurement and analysis needed for the determination are studied in detail. Based on the assumption that the hardness and/or the indentation modulus are force independent, four methods on the determination of the machine compliance are described. Experimental results of a commercial testing machine up to 2500 N and of a standard machine up to 200 N are analyzed. The results show that the uncertainty of the compliance is usually higher than requested for a precisely enough determination of hardness and further materials parameters. Especially for the calibration of reference materials with high hardness and/or Young’s modulus, the machine compliance should be limited in ISO 14577 part 3, 2003 [1].