Isolated contact stress deformations of polymers: the basis for interpreting polymer tribology

This paper reviews the use of what are essentially extensions of the scratch hardness method as a means of probing the surface mechanical properties of polymers for applications in tribology studies. There is a short history and a summary of more recent work. The various damage regimes such as ironing, ploughing, brittle cracking and so on are introduced and the role of the important contact mechanical variables described. A number of 'scratch' or damage maps are provided to illustrate the types of material which may be derived and portrayed using this approach. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.