Buehler Achieves Expanded ISO Accreditation
for Hardness Reference Blocks – Now Also
Certified for Vickers and Knoop Testing
The Buehler Wilson® Reference Block Laboratory in Binghamton, NY/USA, was
recently granted an expansion of its accreditation by the American Association
for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA).
Previously covering hardness reference blocks
for Rockwell and Brinell testing according to
ASTM and ISO, and Vickers and Knoop testing
according to ASTM, the accreditation now also
encompasses the production of reference blocks
for hardness testing to Vickers and Brinell
in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025. Buehler
markets these reference blocks globally in
conjunction with its Wilson® range of hardness
testers and the DiaMet™ software, but also for
use with third-party machines.
made to extremely close tolerances, to calibrate
the blocks in its accredited laboratory. Daily in-
house verification ensures compliance with these
requirements. In addition, the standards also
require periodic verifications to be completed by
an accredited third-party. Within the framework of
such an external verification, the accreditation of the
Buehler Wilson® Reference Block Laboratory was now
expanded to all common hardness tests to ASTM and
ISO.
Matthias Pascher, Hardness Product Manager, said:
Calibration of the reference blocks for hardness
“During the calibration, hardness readings are taken,
testing to Rockwell, Vickers, Knoop and Brinell
and statistics calculated according to the applicable
requires compliance with the most exacting
standards. Each test block will get its own certificate,
requirements. Buehler conducts 100% inspection to
thus ensuring full traceability. After the indent
ensure that every single test block meets the physical certification, the blocks are engraved with a laser
requirements of ASTM in terms of thickness, flatness, engraver to add a grid (if applicable) and the hardness
parallelism, surface roughness and magnetism. The
value with tolerance according to the standards.
laboratory then uses specialized hardness testers
All hardness test blocks ship with ASTM and ISO
meeting the stringent requirements of the US-
certificates. Buehler is the only globally operating
American National Institute of Standards and
company in the metallographic solutions market that
Technology (NIST) and equipped with load cells
produces and calibrates hardness reference blocks
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WIRE NEWS July 2018