Editing Brinell hardness test (section)

== Common values ==
When quoting a Brinell hardness value (HBW), the conditions of the test used to obtain the number must be specified. The standard format for specifying tests can be seen in the example "HBW 10/3000". "HBW" means that a tungsten carbide (from the chemical symbol for tungsten or from the Spanish/Swedish/German name for tungsten, "Wolfram") ball indenter was used, as opposed to "HBS", which (formerly) meant a hardened steel ball (these are no longer in use). The "10" is the ball diameter in millimeters. The "3000" is the force in kilograms force.

The hardness may also be shown as XXX&nbsp;HB&nbsp;YY''D''<sup>2</sup>. The XXX is the force to apply (in kgf) on a material of type YY (5 for aluminum alloys, 10 for copper alloys, 30 for steels). Thus a typical steel hardness could be written: 250&nbsp;HB&nbsp;30''D''<sup>2</sup>. It could be a maximum or a minimum.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Correspondent relations among scale, indenter and test force:
!Hardness symbol
!Diameter of Indenter
mm
!F/D2
!Test force
N/kgf
|-
|HBW 10/3000
|10
|30
|29420(3000)
|-
|HBW 10/1500
|10
|15
|14710(1500)
|-
|HBW 10/1000
|10
|10
|9807(1000)
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Brinell hardness numbers
!Material !! Hardness
|-
|[[Softwood]] (e.g., [[pine]]) || 1.6 HBS 10/100
|-
|[[Hardwood]] || 2.6–7.0 HBS 10/100
|-
|[[Lead]] || 5.0 HB (pure lead; alloyed lead typically can range from 5.0 HB to values in excess of 22.0 HB)
|-
|Pure [[Aluminium]] || 15 HB
|-
|[[Copper]] || 35 HB
|-
|Hardened AW-6060 [[Aluminium]] || 75 HB
|-
|[[Mild steel]] || 120 HB
|-
|18–8 (304) [[stainless steel]] annealed || 200 HB<ref name="AISI304">{{Cite web |title=AISI Type 304 Stainless Steel |work=ASM Material Data Sheet |date=n.d. |access-date=28 May 2019 |url=http://asm.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=mq304a |archive-date=1 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001114838/http://asm.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=mq304a |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
|Quenched and tempered steel wear plate || 400-700 HB
|-
|Hardened [[tool steel]] || 600–900 HB  (HBW 10/3000)
|-
|[[Glass]] || 1550 HB
|-
|[[Rhenium diboride]] || 4600 HB
|-
| colspan=2 | Note: Standard test conditions unless otherwise stated
|}