Introduction High Load Tribometer

In the Pin-on-Disk Tribometer, a flat, pin or sphere isloaded onto a test sample with a precisely known weight. The pin is mounted on a stiff lever designed as a frictionless force transducer.Void of parasiticfriction, the highly stiff elastic arm ensures a nearly fixed contact point and thus a stable position in the friction track. Thefriction coefficient is determined during the test by measuring the deflection of the elastic arm.Wear coefficients for the pin and disk material are calculatedfrom the volume of material lost during the test. This simple method facilitates the study of friction and wear behavior of almost every solid state material combination with or without lubrication. Furthermore, users can easily control test parameters such as: speed, frequency, contact pressure and varying time. Environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and lubrication can be controlled to reproduce the real life conditions of a practical wear situation. The high load system,with similar options as thestandard system, allows tests up to 300N (500N optional) with minimum load of 1N. The High Load Tribometer is ideal for applications where high contact pressure is sometimes found, as in automotive, railroad and aeronautic industries. It is especially useful when the generation of contact pressure is very high as in gear interaction and ball bearing applications.

Options Standard & High Load Tribometers High Temperature

The analysis offriction and wear proper- ties at elevated tempera- tures is becoming increas- ingly important as engineers in industries, such as in the design of advanced fuel efficient combustion engines or power plants, face ever more challenging materials. The High Temperature Tribometer employs a fixed heating element, enabling the rotating disk to reach temperatures up to 800

Standard Tribometer

The Pin on Disk Tribometer incorporates features such asdirect weighting and Windows XP/2000 tribometry software. It comes with a Plexi-glass enclosure which allows testing under varying atmospheres involving different humidities and compositions. Specialized options of the Tribometer have been developed for high temperature opera- tions, high load and high rotational speed up to 6000rpm . The optional complete lubrication system allows three modes of testing: drop by drop, spray and soak techniques. All tribometers can be equipped with a measuring sensor for real-time display of depth information, important when studying time and wear dependant properties. Furthermore, an electrical conductivity option provides important information regarding the failure of insulating coatings. The optional computer controlled radius allows spiral testinguseful for researchingcoatings deposited onballs or pins. Thisoption increases the test length by allowingthe ball to pass onuntouched surfaces.
º C, suitable for use in the study ofhigh temperature ceramics, lubricants, oils, additives and self lubricating materials.A lower temperature range to 200
o C is available. Thisoption allows testing of in-situ conditions in a range of deposi- tion technologies such as ion beam sputtering PVD and CVD, which use quartz lamp heating element to attain similar tempera- tures. This temperature range is ideal in biomaterial studies where body fluid temperatures average (+/-37
o C). It is also useful in thestudy of polymers under their melting point.

Linear Reciprocating

The Linear Tribometer reproduces the reciprocating motiontypical in many real world mechanisms. The instrument produces a friction coefficient for both the forward and backward move- ments of the stroke. This reciprocating technique is very useful for studying the static coefficient of friction over time as opposed to the kinetic coefficient measured with the Pin-on-Disk geometry. Most contact geometries can be reproduced with the Tribometer including Pin-on-Plate, Ball-on-Plate, and Flat-on-Plate (others on request). Additionally, the Linear Tribometer can be equipped with a heating element for testing under a wide variety of temperatures. Linear speeds up to 100Hz are available with displacement as long as 105mm.