• REFERENTS:
  ENRICO MIORIN
  

• UNIT:
  PADUA
  

Tribology is the study of interacting surfaces in relative motion. This includes lubrication, lubricating oils and greases, contact mechanics, friction, wear, surface damage, surface modifications and coatings. At ICMATE laboratories, tribological tests are performed to investigate and develop innovative lubricants, nanofluids and material performance under friction and wear conditions.
Padova ICMATE lab is equipped with:

Universal Micro Material Tester (UMT-2)
It is a modular tool, able to carry out the following tests in different configurations:

• Tribological tests:

  • Reciprocative tests (ASTM G133):
    1.   Pin-on-Flat;
    2.   Ball-on-Flat.
  • Rotary tests (ASTM G99):
    1.   Pin-on-Disc;
    2.   Ball-on-Disc.
• Tribocorrosion tests (ASTM G119)
• Scratch tests under constant or progressive load (UNI EN 1071-3).

The apparatus includes:
4 motors for the servo-mechanical loading and rotary motion (up to 1000 rpm) or linear reciprocative motion of the specimens (up to 10 mm·s-1); temperature control (up to 150°C); load cells from 5 mN to 200N; electrolytic cell and potentiometric system; acoustic emission probe; electric contact resistance, current, potential and temperature sensors; multichannel data acquisition system.

Stylus profiler
Contact stylus profilometry is a surface topography measurement method where a mechanically contacting element scans over the surface boundary of a solid state body. A diamond stylus moves in contact with the sample for the measurement of topology and surface roughness. It is possible to perform linear profiles and 3D maps with a vertical repeatability lower than 5 Å. The technique is also used to evaluate wear traces and to determine depths and size of the craters realized during SIMS and LA-ICP-MS working sessions.

Calotest
Coupled with the optical microscope, it provides a fast, simple and economical measure of film thickness from 200nm up to 50m.