Development of multipurpose reciprocating wear tester under various environmental parameters

Friction and wear study of sliding surfaces plays a prominent role in the development of materials for various applications. The development of a low-cost multipurpose reciprocating tribometer at constant sliding speed to study the tribological properties of a material under dry, wet and high temperature conditions is presented in this paper. The tribometer has the ability of changing its stroke length in three levels viz. 85mm, 100mm and 120mm. The principle of operation consists of sliding counter surface against a stationary test samples under load. EN8 steel plate which acts as a counter surface, reciprocates with the help of crankshaft mechanism where the sample to be tested kept stationary in contact with the moving part. The testing of the material can be carried out at with variable loads to simulate real time scenarios. Load is applied as a dead weight and temperature sensor is used to find variation in temperature during testing. Strain gauge is used to find the frictional force between the materials. The prototype model of this tribometer is developed to achieve the tribological properties of the materials.