A micro-abrasive wear test, with particular application to coated systems

A test methodology is described which permits a rotating sphere test, also used to measure coating thickness, to be used as a small-scale abrasive wear test. The ability of the test to measure intrinsic wear resistance for thin coatings is demonstrated together with a new method of analysis which allows simultaneous evaluation of the wear resistance of both substrate and coating from their combined wear behaviour in a single test. The method has been applied to physically vapour deposited TiN, TiCN and TiAlN coatings on tool steel substrates, as well as to bulk samples of metals, ceramics and soda-lime glass.