Shore hardness

Hardness is defined as resistance of an object against penetration of a harder object. For testing the hardness of soft objects, as e.g. elastomers that return into their initial shape after releasing the load the testing method according to Shore (Albert L. Shore) is applied. There are different Shore testing methods but basically it is valid: A spring loaded, tempered steel pin with a defined design is pressed into the test object with a defined force and the characteristic value is read off the scale. The Shore hardness scale is based on a penetration depth of 2.5 mm maximum and ranges from the value 0 (maximum penetration depth 2.5 mm – no resistance) to the value 100 (0 mm penetration depth – highest resistance) at a reference temperature of 23 °C.