It establishes the hardness of a material by means of the indentation method that allows to measure the penetration of an object in the material to be studied.
In the test, the indenter is a steel ball of 10 to 12 mm of diameter that rests on the test specimen, exerting on it a force of 3,000 kiloponds during a time, appearing a indentation of diameter on the metal.
Brinell hardness is defined by the formula: HB = P / S.
(P = kg load and S = indentation surface in mm2).