Patent ID: 8566735

Claim:
A hardness tester for forming indentations by sequentially pressing an indenter loaded with a predetermined load against surfaces of a plurality of test specimens mounted on a test specimen stage, comprising: a display configured to display a main screen and an assistant screen, the main screen configured to display a surface image of a test specimen of a plurality of test specimens and on which an indentation is formed by the indenter, and the assistant screen configured to display an assistant image to assist a user; a first test location setter configured to set a test location of a first test specimen of the plurality of test specimens; and a second test location setter configured to set a test location of a second test specimen of the plurality of test specimens, the first test location setter comprising: a first coordinate setter configured to set a reference coordinate on the surface image of the first test specimen in response to a coordinate setting operation by a user with respect to the surface image of the first test specimen when the surface image of the first test specimen is displayed on the main screen; an indentation formation location setter configured to set a coordinate point of an indentation formation location in response to an indentation formation location setting operation by a user with respect to the surface image of the first test specimen after the reference coordinate is set by the first coordinate setter; a setting condition store configured to store a setting condition of the coordinate point set by the indentation formation location setter; and an image store configured to store the surface image of the first test specimen displayed on the main screen, the second test location setter comprising: an assistant image display controller configured to display the surface image of the first test specimen as the assistant image in the assistant screen when a surface image of the second test specimen is displayed on the main screen; a second coordinate setter configured to set a reference coordinate on the surface image of the second or subsequent test specimen in response to a coordinate setting operation by a user with respect to the surface image of the second or subsequent test specimen displayed on the main screen; and an indentation formation location determiner configured to determine a coordinate point of an indentation formation location based on the reference coordinate set by the second coordinate setter and the setting condition of the coordinate point stored in the setting condition store.