Nano Instruments Nanoindenter Control Unit Olympus BH2-UMA Microscope HP 9153C

Nano Instruments Nanoindenter Control Unit Olympus BH2-UMA Microscope HP 9153C

This is a complete Nano Instruments Nanoindenter system — a precision nanomechanical testing instrument used to measure the hardness and elastic modulus of materials at the micro- and nanoscale. The system centers on the Nano Instruments control cabinet, which houses the nanoindenter electronics, two HP 3478A digital multimeters, and a full front-panel control interface. It interfaces with a dedicated HP 9000 300 Series computer workstation for data acquisition and system control, and incorporates an Olympus BH2-UMA Universal Vertical Illuminator microscope for optical positioning and sample viewing. This lot is sold as-is and has not been tested; it requires freight shipping.

Specifications & What's Included

• Nano Instruments Nanoindenter Control Unit — blue floor-standing cabinet with front-panel IEEE interface status indicators (system active, reset, error, SRQ, remote), Load Control section, and Z Motor controls
• HP 3478A Multimeter (Hewlett-Packard) — two units, rack-mounted in lower section of control cabinet; 4-wire sense inputs, 3A/250V fuse, full front-panel operation
• Manual load control handpiece — round black controller with FAST, UP, DOWN pushbuttons and low/down/stop toggle switches
• Motorized XY sample stage — precision linear stage with motor-driven axes mounted on isolation table
• Olympus BH2-UMA Universal Vertical Illuminator Microscope — binocular head, f=180 focal length
• Olympus MDPLAN objective lenses — 5x, 20x, and 150x on rotating turret
• Olympus TGH Illumination Controller — 100/115V AC, 50-60Hz, 0.7/0.6A; lamp output 12V 50W; fuse 7A FAST; Made in Japan (serial no. 216462)
• HP 9000 300 Series Computer Workstation with CRT monitor and keyboard — 1988-vintage system; not tested
• HP 9135C with single 20MB internal hard drive (HP part 97500-85620)
• HP 9153C Rugged Desktop Disc Drive
• HP Thinkjet Printer
• Inmac T-Switch (parallel printer switch)
• System interconnect cables — braided-shield cables with military-style circular connectors
• Nanoindenter tip (in labeled case visible in photos)
• Sample mounts and calibration standard
• Acoustic foam enclosure panels (visible in photos on isolation table)
• Original operating manual dated September 1988 — includes test result printouts from 2005 in pocket
• Heavy steel isolation table (system stage mounted on this)
• Additional manuals/binders visible in photos

Applications

Nanoindentation instruments like this Nano Instruments system were developed in the 1980s as laboratory tools for measuring the mechanical properties of thin films, coatings, and bulk materials at very small scales. By pressing a diamond indenter tip into a sample surface under precisely controlled loads and measuring the resulting displacement, the system generates load-displacement curves from which hardness and elastic modulus are calculated. This type of instrument was used in materials science research, semiconductor and thin-film characterization, hard-coating evaluation, and academic research into surface mechanical behavior. The Nano Instruments brand was a pioneer in this field — the company, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, produced some of the earliest commercial nanoindentation systems in the late 1980s. Their instruments were used in universities, national laboratories, and industrial R&D facilities. The Olympus BH2-UMA vertical illuminator provided reflected-light optical imaging of the sample surface alongside the mechanical indentation, allowing precise tip placement relative to features of interest. These systems date from the era when nanoindentation was transitioning from a specialized research technique to a more widely adopted characterization method, preceding later instruments such as the MTS Nano Indenter II and the Hysitron TI series. A working nanoindenter of this vintage is of interest to researchers, collectors of scientific instrumentation, and institutions maintaining legacy characterization capability.