Industrial consultation meeting on abrasion, wear and erosion testing

Citation

Wilson, B. (1999), "Industrial consultation meeting on abrasion, wear and erosion testing", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 51 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1999.01851cab.016

Industrial consultation meeting on abrasion, wear and erosion testing

Industrial consultation meeting on abrasion, wear and erosion testing

Keywords Abrasive wear, Erosion, Testing

The DTI (Government Department of Trade and Industry) plans to continue supporting work on wear testing for the benefit of British industry. Surveys conducted under project CAM 8 (Characterisation of advanced materials project 8) in the current DTI sponsored advanced materials programme found that reliable methods of abrasive and erosive wear testing were the major industrial unfulfilled need.

Dr Mark Gee, CMMT (Centre for Materials Measurement and Technology) National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, organised an Industrial Consultation Meeting held on 25 November to plan future action and enlist support from industry. About 30 people were present at the meeting, nearly half from industrial concerns such as plain bearing, mechanical seal, gas turbine, compressor, glass, ceramic, steel and gas producers.

CAM 8 ends in March 1999 to be replaced in April 1999 by a new DTI funded project under the programme renamed as the CFM (Characterisation of performance materials) programme. The word "performance" was preferred as more appropriate than "advanced" in describing the nature of the projects envisaged within the programme.

Surveys conducted under CAM 8 confirmed that "wear remains a major cost for British Industry due to lost production caused by routine or corrective maintenance of plant and equipment". They identified that far too much work was focussed on sliding wear testing (the very widely used pin-on-disc type tests were singled out as particularly inappropriate) while the major industrial need was for methods to measure abrasion and erosion resistance. In addition, the existing test methods for these types of wear "lack consistency in test procedures and interpretation of results. This can lead to confusion or even disbelief in the minds of potential users of the data and is thought to limit the acceptance and use of wear test data in modellingstudies."

The new project will be aimed at developing good practice and recommended test procedures for abrasive and erosive wear testing. This project will be led by NPL, but its direction and success will very much depend on effective collaboration and partnership with British industry and research institutes.

NPL

NPL, the National Physical Laboratory, is the UK's national standards laboratory. It remains a government owned organisation but has been operated since October 1995 by NPL Management Limited, part of the Serco Group, on the behalf of the DTI. NPL has the role of:

satisfying the nation's current and future needs for physical measurement standards, seeking ways in which improved use of measurement can contribute to UK competitiveness, and serving customers world-wide with an expanding range of high quality scientific services.

It has ten departments or centres, one of which, the Centre for Materials Measurement and Technology (CMMT), staffed with around 100 scientists, includes an active interest in friction and wear measurement. Figure 1 summarises the capabilities of CMMT.

Figure 1 Capabilities of CMMT available to industry

For many years CMMT, in the form of Dr Mark Gee, has run the UK Forum on Friction and Wear Testing. This forum facilitates information exchange on wear testing, develops wear testing methods and aims to improve the reproducibility and repeatability of friction and wear testing. It also acts as the UK focus for activity under TWAl (wear test methods) of VAMAS (Versailles project on advanced materials and standards), for FASTE (an international collaborative project on the testing of thin, hard coatings) and for the DTI's CAM (Characterisation of advanced materials) programme. CAM 8 (tests for users of wear resistant materials) and CAM 9 (performance related testing of ceramics and hardmetals) are the parts of CAM concerned with wear. Under CAM 8, surveys of industrial wear problems and of wear test methods were recently completed, carried out by Neale Consulting Engineers and NPL respectively.

CPM Programme

The new materials metrology programmes are the CFM (Characterisation of performance materials) and the MPM (Measurement for processing materials). They will be of three-year duration starting April 1999 for NEL projects. There is £8-12 million funding from the government, a third of which will be open to competitive tenders for work starting in September 1999.

The CFM and MPM programme areas are polymers, surface technology, biomaterials, metals and industrial alloys, powder route materials, liquids at high temperatures, electronics and functional materials. The metals and industrial alloys project will be single tendered to NEL, but the surface technology project, which will include abrasion, wear and erosion testing, is open to competitive tender.

Abrasion, wear and erosion testing objectives.

• •

  To review with industry and other expert centres existing erosion and abrasion test methods taking account of the previous work carried out under CAM 8.

• •

  To establish the degree of variability or consistency between various testing laboratories for the different test methods. This would include the organisation of interlaboratory exercises.

• •

  To establish good practice for industry for the different test methods. In some cases this may require practical studies to resolve issues where there is disagreement concerning procedure or lack of information about control of tests. Where appropriate, to incorporate such good practice into test standards.

• •

  To work with industry to seek ways in which methods can be made more representative of real wear situations.

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  To improve the understanding, appreciation and application of existing test methods in industry through dissemination via the UK Forum on Friction and Wear Testing and other mechanisms.

• •

  To develop greater confidence in industry in the use of wear data in modelling studies.

• •

  To disseminate:

  • •

    Handbook on wear testing for industry (CAM 8)

  • •

    Database on wear testing standards

  • •

    Good practice guides

Test methods which might be examined are:

• •

  rotating wheel abrasion tests;

• •

  abrasion tests for coatings;

• •

  two-body abrasion tests (abrasive paper);

• •

  fluid jet erosion tests (in erosion the abrasive particle has high energy; in abrasion the particle has low energy);

• •

  gas borne particulate erosion;

• •

  cavitation erosion.

There is need for the development of reference abrasives, including a standard sand. Reference was made to ACFTD (air cleaner fine test dust), a standard abrasive in the USA.

Industrial partners

The DTI considers that it is essential for the work carried out in these projects to be for the benefit of industry. This can best be ensured by industry showing tangible support for the programmes. Such support or partnership could be in the form of cash, materials, supply of equipment, manpower or services, or in other appropriate forms. The DTI expects the support for projects to amount to 10 per cent in the form of cash and 30 per cent materials.

Any organisations interested in taking part should contact NPL without delay as the programme timings have already slipped.

Dr M. G. Gee, Centre for Materials Measurement and Technology, National Physical Laboratory, Queens Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 0LW. Tel: 0181 943 6374; Fax: 0181 943 2989; E-mail MGG@NPL.CO.UK

Bill Wilson