| Abstract: | To characterise the friction and wear behaviour of materials and lubricants under a variety of operating conditions, laboratory models are frequently used to provide useful information. For example, during the development and/or selection of tribomaterials and lubricants, laboratory ranking of candidate products can save many hours of field testing. A reciprocating ball‐on‐flat wear test rig has been developed to rank the performance of materials, surface coatings, and lubricants under boundary, extreme‐pressure, or fretting conditions in a variety of environments and at various temperatures. The rig design is based on ASTM G133–1995. The friction force and wear are measured on both specimens while the load, stroke length and frequency, test temperature, lubricant type, test duration, surface topography of both ball and flat specimens, specimen materials, and environmental conditions are noted. The results presented in this paper refer specifically to a series of tests performed to evaluate various anti‐fretting lubricants. Two lubricants are compared in terms of friction coefficient and wear volume over time. A clear difference is shown between the two products. |
