Hardness testing plays a crucial role in assessing the mechanical strength and surface resistance of metallic materials. Copper, widely used in electrical and structural applications, requires careful hardness evaluation to ensure performance reliability. This study optimizes the hardness testing process for copper using the Taguchi design of experiments combined with analysis of variance (ANOVA). Four process parameters—indentation location, dwell time, testing temperature, and loading duration—are examined to determine their individual and interactive effects on Rockwell hardness. The optimal configuration is identified as indentation location at Level 2, dwell time at Level 1, temperature at Level 3, and loading duration at Level 3, producing a hardness value of 34.53 HRB, which aligns with the target value. ANOVA results show that temperature and loading duration are the most influential parameters, while the interaction between indentation position and temperature represents the strongest combined effect. The findings demonstrate that the Taguchi–ANOVA approach provides a reliable and efficient framework for optimizing mechanical testing.
Hedayati-Dezfooli et al. (Sat,) studied this question.