The Herbert pendulum, an inverted-pendulum hardness tester, can measure the hardness of various types and shapes of materials from the motion of the pendulum as it swings on a specimen. However, a large experimental system is required to detect the swing angle of the pendulum during the hardness test. This study miniaturized the Herbert hardness system and investigated its accuracy. A new Herbert pendulum was developed, which is equipped with an acceleration sensor to detect the swing angle and a Raspberry Pi microcomputer to calculate the hardness. The new Herbert hardness tester achieves portability because only the pendulum is needed to perform the hardness test. The tester can connect to a personal computer and a smartphone through Wi-Fi to provide remote data transmission. The new Herbert tester was used to perform hardness tests on five kinds of Brinell hardness reference blocks. Smooth free decay curves were obtained, and the hardness was calculated from the curves. The hardness distance between the present tester and conventional swing angle detection using laser displacement meters was less than 5%. Thus, the new Herbert hardness tester can provide reasonable evaluations of material hardness.

赫伯特摆锤是一种倒立式摆锤硬度计，可以通过摆锤在样品上摆动时的运动来测量各种类型和形状的材料的硬度。但是，需要一个大型的实验系统来检测硬度测试过程中摆的摆动角度。这项研究使Herbert硬度系统小型化，并研究了其准确性。开发了一个新的赫伯特摆锤，该摆锤配备了一个用于检测摆动角度的加速度传感器和一个用于计算硬度的Raspberry Pi微型计算机。新型Herbert硬度测试仪可实现便携性，因为只需要摆即可进行硬度测试。测试仪可以通过Wi-Fi连接到个人计算机和智能手机，以提供远程数据传输。新的赫伯特测试仪用于对五种布氏硬度参考块进行硬度测试。获得平滑的自由衰减曲线，并从该曲线计算硬度。本测试仪与使用激光位移计的常规摆角检测之间的硬度距离小于5％。因此，新型的赫伯特硬度测试仪可以对材料硬度进行合理的评估。