This is part 3 of David Pye's blog series on hardness testing.

Our discussion on hardness-testing principles continues. In part 2 we will classify some hardness-testing methods.

What is hardness testing?

This series on trends and developments in heat-treatment technology concludes.

This series on trends and developments in heat-treatment technology continues.

The advent of plasma processing technology for surface treatments resulted in many new opportunities for developing treatment processes.

We are reviewing the developments that have taken place within the heat-treatment processing industry on an international basis.

Emerging technologies are focusing on the deposition methods of coating the steel surface with a hard metal (or combinations of metals).

Salt-bath nitriding is a low-temperature operation utilizing cyanide-based salts, and the die is nitrided in the molten salt.

The surface treatment of H13 hot-work tool steel for extrusion and forging dies is a technique that has been practiced for many years to extend the performance of the die surface. Many different methods of surface treatment have been tried with varying degrees of success.