Development and use of ASTM standards for wear testing

Standard wear test methods have been developed under the auspices of various ASTM technical committees. Committee G-2 on `Wear and Erosion' was established in 1964 and has been a leader in developing such standards. Some ASTM wear testing standards are aimed at specific components, like the jaws of rock crushers, but others are designed to determine a material's resistance to a specific wear type, like solid-particle erosion or two-body abrasive wear. Having identified a need for a new wear testing standard, ASTM G-2 typically follows a process of first assigning responsibility to a relevant subcommittee. The subcommittee chair may then decide to establish a task group to develop the given method, conduct one or more inter-laboratory testing programs, write a draft standard, conduct ballots, and revise or rewrite the draft standard to achieve consensus. Since the repeatability and reproducibility varies between test methods, understanding the role of instrumental and measurement factors of each wear testing standard is critical before it can become approved. In addition, each standard is critically reviewed on a continuing 5-year basis, and revised or updated as needed. This paper describes the development of standard wear testing methods and provides five examples of how ASTM G-2 wear testing standards were used to help solve important industrial problems involving sliding wear, abrasive wear, galling, and erosive wear.