Most abrasion tests depend on applying energy to the fabrics and measuring their response to it. The manner of transferring the energy from machine to the fabric is different for different machines, but the basic principles are the same.
During testing, the resistance to abrasion is also greatly affected by the conditions of the tests, such as the nature of the abradant, variable motion of the abradant over the area of specimen, the tension of the specimen, the pressure between the specimen and the abradant, and the condition of the specimen (wet or dry).
The type of abrasion like flat, flex or edge abrasion or a combination of more than one affect the test results as expected. In many fabrics the abrasion resistance in the warp direction differs from that of the weft direction. Ideally the rubbing motion used by an abrasion machine should be such as to eliminate directional effects. In jacquard and textured fabrics, the test sample should include both the textured and different parts, sensitive to abrasion.
Abradants can consist of anything that will cause wear. A number of different abradants have been used in abrasion tests including standard fabrics, abrasive paper (glass paper, sand paper etc.) or stones (aluminum oxide or silicon carbide), steel plates and metal ‘knives’. The nature of abradants and the type of action control the severity of the test. For the test to correspond with actual wear in use it is desirable that the abrasive should be similar to that encountered in service. The abradant itself wear during the test so they should be replaced after a certain usage time .
Abrasion tests are all subject to variation due to changes in the abradant during specific tests. The abradant must accordingly be discarded at frequent intervals or checked periodically against a standard. With disposable abradants, the abradant is used only once or discarded after limited use. With permanent abradants that use hardened metal or equivalent surfaces, it is assumed that the abradant will not change appreciably in a specific series of tests. Similar abradants used in different laboratories will not change at the same rate, due to differences in usage. Permanent abradants may also change due to pick up of finishing or other material
from test fabrics and must accordingly be cleaned at frequent intervals.
The measurement of the relative amount of abrasion may also be affected by the method of evaluation and may be influenced by the judgment of the operator (ASTM D 3884). The pressure between the abradant and the sample and the test speed affects the severity and rate at which abrasion occurs. It has been shown that using different pressures can seriously alter the ranking of a set of fabrics when using a particular abradant. Excessive pressure and testing speed can result in shorter testing time but however, the results can not simulate the normal usage conditions. The tension of the mounted specimen is also important, and it should be same for all samples. Tension during the test is provided by backing foam or inflated diaphragm.
