Over the past 100 years, there have been hundreds of wear testing instruments developed. Fortunately, there has been significant work conducted to develop standardized test procedures and many industries specify a preferred tester that is used.
If you are unsure where to start, begin by contacting research industry associations to determine if an accepted abrasion test procedure exists. Other sources of information include organizations that develop test standards, such as ASTM International and ISO.
If a method does not exist or you decide not to follow the industry standard, you need to select a test that models the wear system that you wish to study. Ideally, the test would exactly duplicate a wear situation seen in an intended application, such as a field test. However, given the complexity of wear, an exact simulation is generally neither practical nor possible and some differences will have to be accepted. This is because wear involves two or more bodies, one or more materials, and is dependent on a wide range of influences. Therefore, test development is subject to trial and error and is dependent on the capability of the developer.
The primary elements involved in simulating a wear system include apparatus design, specimen preparation, test protocol, and measurement. The following describe the important features that should be considered: motion; apparatus; materials involved; abradant (wear agent); contact geometry; contact pressure (applied load); sliding speed (sliding velocity); state of lubrication; specimen preparation; and environment.
It is not uncommon for an engineer concerned with reliability and product life to require precise simulation of the wear system. In contrast, a material developer looking to rank the wear resistance of materials may accept a convenient test that does not exactly replicate intended use. In either case, a well thought out wear test can provide valid test data.
