A SYSTEMS-APPROACH TO THE TRIBOLOGICAL TESTING OF COATED MATERIALS

This paper is an attempt to illustrate how laboratory wear tests combined with an in-depth material characterization and interpretation based on models present in literature can support the use of advanced wear protection coatings. Therefore it is necessary to define what is meant by tribology and what the definitions are of wear and friction. The following step is a structured approach for determining the tribological characteristics of coated materials. Some considerations are made about the choice of the experimental set-up for testing coated materials. A framework for situating and describing the wear modes noticed is discussed based on existing wear models. This is illustrated by a discussion of laboratory wear test results on electrolytic hard gold, ceramic TiN-based coatings and hard carbon-based coatings.