ONLINE WEAR MONITORING USING ACOUSTIC-EMISSION

On-line estimation of the wear rate of materials subjected to abrasion has been accomplished using acoustic emission (AE) sensing. The energy in the AE signal is directly related to the energy required for material removal in the abrasion process. The technique has been successfully applied to monitoring the wear of magnetic recording head materials using lapping tapes over a wide range of wear rates. A methodology has been developed to calibrate the AE monitoring system on line and to estimate the total wear volume. Such a system provides a very powerful quantitative measurement technique for tribological studies, as well as for on-line machine or process diagnostic applications.