The measuring of shore hardness according DIN ISO 7619-1 is the most applied measurement of the elastomer hardness. The shore hardness gives the resistance of a rubber part towards the penetration of a cone-shaped pin with determined dimensions under a defined pressure. Shore A for softer compounds and Shore D for harder compounds is determined by the type of measuring pin.
To receive a perfect measuring result of the shore hardness the test specimen must have a thickness of 6 mm. In many cases the measurement on finished parts with a small rubber wall thickness leads to wrong results.
Standard elastomer compounds for technical rubber moulded parts are lying in a range from 20 to 90 Shore A.
Besides the Shore hardness test with a cone shaped gauging tip there exists the IRHD test according DIN ISO 48 with a ball shaped gauging tip.