Ring Hardness Guide

Came across this in my files and thought it would be interesting to post:

Ring Hardness Values

Stainless Steel (SS): 400
Chrome: 800-1000
Carbaloy: 1000
Aluminum Oxide: 1200-1400
Alconite : 1300-1500
NanoLite : 1800
Zirconia: 1000-1400
Zirconia PVD: 1600
Silicon Carbide (SiC): 2200-2400

Titanium carbide may also be used and is pretty  interesting.  Titanium carbide films have found wide application in various tribological engineering devices owing to its excellent hardness and, therefore, wear resistance. To apply titanium carbide coating on various substrates, physical vapour phase deposition (PFD) and chemical vapour phase deposition (CVD) methods are commonly employed.  The key word here is "coating" because titanium carbide in its bulk state is not used.  It has a hardness of around 3000 (30GPa).  If a manufacturer uses the coating you will see it classified as PFD on the rod spec sheet.