What is Shore hardness?

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The Shore test is one of the static mechanical tests that can be used to measure the hardness of plastic and rubber materials.

Tires, shoe insoles and gaskets are just a few examples, although it can actually be used in all polymer, elastomer, rubber and gel-like materials.

In specific, the measurement is made using a Shore hardness tester. However, this instrument comes with many variants, normally classified according to two characteristics:

1. Depending on the scale chosen

Before listing the many scales available, keep in mind that two main differences should be considered when choosing your Shore hardness tester: the shape of the indenter and the force of the spring.

These two parameters are assessed based on the specific elastic and viscoelastic properties of the material being measured.

Here are some of the most commonly used Shore hardness testers:

Shore OO: used for particularly soft materials such as gel insoles;

Shore A: used for soft materials, such as silicone and vinyl;

Shore D: used for harder materials, such as resins and plexiglass.

It is, however, important to keep in mind that for the Shore hardness measurement according to one of the reference standards – ASTM D2240 -, there are other types of scales: B, C, DO, E, M, O, OOO, OOO-S, and R.

When added to those previously listed, we therefore have a total of 12 scales.

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