Hardness, Friction and Wear

All parts where there is 2 body or 3 body friction contact, particularly between dissimilar materials, will wear over time and need to be monitored. The more a material wears, the more likely the component is to fail, however, this will depend on the hardness of the material, texture, wear particles and debris, interactions like corrosion and oxidation as well as applied lubrication and indeed its own degradation during operation. These will all impact the friction components are experiencing in the operational application. A list of typical hardness, friction and wear activities include:

• Hardness testing product checks against specifications for surface treatments.
• Hardness testing and microscopic surface coating examination investigating wear resistance issues.
• Evaluation of failures of low friction and wear coatings.
• Analysis of wear material / debris by SEM / EDX.
• Surface chemical analysis of low friction coating by XPS.
• Metal and alloy hardness testing and metallography looking at microstructures.