On the precise measurement capability of the direct microscopic measurement method for wear volume characterization

Kocaeli University, Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Eng. 41380 Kocaeli, Turkey

Abstract

There are plenty of methods for determining the wear volume after a wear test. Due to the geometrical assumptions, some of them could unfortunately lead to mistaken results. It has been shown that a novel method, the direct microscopic measurement, is able to calculate the wear volume on a specimen surface very precisely and accurately [1-2]. It is based on creating a series of line profiles perpendicular to the wear scar. This novel method, however, needs to be characterized in terms of measurement limitations and minimum detectable volume capability. For example, how small or how shallow a wear scar could be calculated or measured with this method, must be determined. For this purpose, it has been prepared a series of wear test specimens exposed to the different amounts of wear in a “pin-on-disk” type test rig. As specimens, two different non-ferrous mold materials, Al bronze alloys, were selected and prepared metallographically. Counterpart materials were inox steel and bearing steel balls with diameter of 6 mm. Normal load was set to 5 N. Test configurations were set to 1, 5, 10 and 100 m of sliding distance values, in turn. Wear tests were conducted in according to ASTM G99 standard. Wear volume results were determined both direct microscopic measurement and also a 3D optical microscope methods. Comparison results showed that the novel method could be successfully used for wear volume calculations even with small amounts of wear volume conditions.