Resistance of a material to indentation as measured by such methods as Brinell, Rockwell, and Vickers. The term hardness also refers to stiffness of a material, or its resistance to scratching, abrasion, or cutting.

A single furnace charge of metal.

A combination of heating and cooling operations that are applied to a metal or alloy to improve its properties and microstructures.

Irregularly shaped fracture in a casting resulting from stresses set up by steep thermal gradients within the casting during solidification.

process A resin-based process that uses heated metal core boxes to produce cores.