Micro-scale studies of wear

Sammanfattning: The development of materials for tribological components is constantly striving to more sophisticated properties, specialised for specific applications. This progress requires and depends to a large extent on a parallel development of the theoretical knowledge of wear and on development of the experimental tools for investigating wear in the research lab as well as in the field.Within the work presented in this thesis, three tools to investigate wear on a micro-scale have been developed and applied. These tools are:A miniature wear test for wear rate determination of both thin coatings and bulk materials. The test is utilising an abrasive wheel to ground spherical cap shaped craters into the specimen for subsequent wear rate calculations.A method for high resolution wear mapping and wear volume determination based on topometric measurements using instruments such as the atomic force microscope. This method makes it possible to perform uniquely sensitive wear volume measurements and mapping, for the first time, on actual components. The method is also well suited for fundamental studies on wear.Extremely well controlled abrasive surfaces. These surfaces have been manufactured in silicon and offer the possibilities to perform hitherto impossible fundamental studies on wear. In addition, controlled abrasive surfaces have been manufactured in diamond, possessing a great potential in grinding and polishing applications.These tools have been successfully applied in a number of investigations including fundamental studies of the size effect and the influence of tip shape in abrasion, the effect of large compressive stresses on the wear of diamond, and the minute wear of hydraulic motor cam rollers.