Method of and apparatus for measuring and evaluating material strength by detecting charged particles

A material strength measuring and evaluating apparatus which functions by detecting charged particles, said apparatus comprising:

• a sample mounting base for mounting a test object;
• an indenter to be pressed into the test object;
• a charged particle collecting element disposed in the vicinity of the front end portion of the indenter and formed integrally with or independently from the indenter;
• an indentation load detector for detecting an indentation load of the indenter;
• a displacement detector for detecting a displacement amount of the indenter;
• a signal processing system for measuring a peel strength at the time of peel occurrence and/or a fragility breaking strength at the time of fragility breaking, in accordance with the output signals fed from the indentation load detector, the displacement detector and the charged particle collecting element.