Mohs scale of mineral hardness testing the resilience of certain flat panel display components (such as cover glass for LCDs or encapsulation for OLEDs). The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of mineral to scratch another mineral visibly. The samples of matter used by Mohs are all different minerals. Minerals are chemically pure solids found in nature. Rocks are made up of one or more minerals. As the hardest known naturally occurring substance when the scale was designed, diamonds are at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by
Indentation hardness have an effect on the hardness measurement, as long as the indentation is large compared to the surface roughness. This proves to be useful when measuring the hardness of practical surfaces. It also is helpful when leaving a shallow indentation, because a finely etched indenter leaves a much easier to read indentation than a smooth indenter. The indentation that is left after the indenter and load are removed is known to "recover", or spring back slightly. This effect is properly known as "shallowing". For spherical indenters the indentation is known to stay symmetrical and spherical, but with a larger radius.