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Choose Calibration Equipment for Hardness Testers
Calibration equipment is matched to the tester already in service, not chosen from a catalogue of blocks. What it comes down to is the scales and ranges you report against, how a routine in-house check sits alongside formal accredited calibration, and the support items those checks call for. Match the certified blocks and accessories to those and the tester keeps producing defensible numbers.
Use this guide once the instrument itself is settled and the open question is the control setup around it — typically when an audit, a customer complaint or a tightened QA procedure has put the verification routine under scrutiny.
1. How to Choose
- Start with the scales, ranges and instrument families you actually use in routine work, and match every block and certificate to the standards you report against — for example ISO 6508 (Rockwell), ISO 868 / ASTM D2240 (Shore) or ISO 16859 (Leeb).
- Cover the working range rather than a single point: blocks at low, mid and high hardness verify the instrument across the scale, where one mid-range block cannot.
- Separate routine in-house checks from formal calibration service — they solve different problems and run on different cycles (frequent indirect verification on a block versus periodic accredited direct calibration).
- For Leeb portable testers, add an impact-body check against a certified block; the impact device drifts differently from a benchtop indenter and needs its own coverage.
- Buy accessories that match your specimen types, especially for O-rings and smaller parts, and treat indenters and impact bodies as wear parts with current block certificates rather than as emergencies.
2. Products to Consider
- Durometers Essentials for Shore verification blocks, fixtures and support items.
- IRHD Hardness Tester Accessories when ISO 48 rubber testing needs controlled specimens, anvils or method-specific support.
- Metal Hardness Testers when the calibration concern is Leeb verification, impact-device control or conversion reporting.
- Calibration Services when the tester needs formal accredited calibration rather than — or alongside — in-house verification, including durometer calibration.
3. Useful Support Items
Where a durometer is part of the controlled setup, a repeatable test stand such as the RX-OS-2 removes the hand-pressure variability that otherwise undermines a verification reading. Beyond that, keep the setup deliberately small: each verification item, its certificate and the standard named on the report should match the tester family you actually run, rather than accumulating accessories you will not use.
4. Next Step
Once you have matched certified blocks and support items to your tester using the product groups above, you are ready to specify the control setup. If the handheld Shore instrument itself is still undecided, step back to Choose a Shore Durometer first.