Novel method for in-situ and simultaneous nanofriction and nanowear characterization of materials

• Nowadays, there is an increased need to know the nanotribological properties of protectivecoatings used in part devices operating under nano- and microcontact situations, e.g., hard diskdrives, magnetic heads, microelectromechanical systems and microsensors, etc. Therefore, there isa demand for instruments and methods testing friction and wear at the nano- and microscales. Inthis work, the authors present a new methodology to measure simultaneously the friction, and wearof a surface. The authors have designed an experiment, where a probe is permanently scanning a10 lm track in a reciprocal movement. Different loads are applied in order to obtain thetopographic information which is used to calculate the wear rate and roughness evolution. Forcelateral sensors register simultaneously the friction force variations. The experimental input data areinformation vectors that contain: load (lN), friction force (lN), vertical Z displacement (nm),lateral X displacement (nm), and time (s). The data are processed using a simple program runningin MathLabVR which eliminates the thermal drift. The software output gives the resulting frictioncoefficient, track roughness, and wear rate as a function of the running cycles of the probe. Thenew method builds a novel bridge to relate tribological mechanisms at different scales

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Tribologi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Tribology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)