Vickers testing has always been a widely used technique in many materials. Traditional applications require tips made of very hard materials such as diamonds or sapphires, as the indenter must be harder than the material being studied. However, stainless steel is suitable for testing many softer materials such as tablets, soap, fruits, cheese, chocolate, and certain polymers.

Vickers hardness is generally calculated by inputting the diagonal of the indentation into a standard formula. However, the physical property analyzer can automatically perform hardness analysis without the need for a microscope. It can also calculate other parameters, such as stress relaxation and elastic-plastic energy ratio.