This International Standard specifies methods of hardness testing of sintered metal materials，excluding
hardmetals．
1.1 Procedure 1 determines the apparent hardness of the whole materia.
Procedure 1
- applies to sintered meta materials which have either not been subjected to any heat treatment，or which have been heat treated in such a way that the hardness is essentially unifOrm to a depth of at least 5 mm below the surface,
- applies to the surfaces of sintered metal materials which have been treated in such a way that the
hardness is not uniform in the section to a depth of 5 mm below the surface，
- therefore applies to materials in which the hardness is obtained essentially by surface enrichment by carbon，or by carbon and nitrogen(for example，and by carburising，carbonitriding，nitrOcarburIsing or
sulphidising)，and
- applies to materials which have been induction hardened.
1.2 Procedure 2 determines the microhardness of the metal phase.