Impact Testing
- a reliable alternative to scratch testing
- only from Micro Materials

 

Micro Materials has developed a revolutionary new technique for testing coatings and surfaces where ability to withstand repetitive contact is critical to product performance

Why Use Impact Testing?

Techniques routinely used to measure the mechanical properties of wear-resistant coatings and surfaces sometimes prove difficult to correlate with actual product performance, particularly for surfaces that are subjected to erosive wear or multiple impacts during service. Now quantitative data can be obtained with the revolutionary new technique of small scale impact testing, available as a modular add-on option to the NanoTest. The impact technique can be used with or without transverse sample movement during testing.

 

 

...when the film fails catastrophically there is an abrupt and easily recognised shift in the probe position...

 

Testing Surface Fracture Resistance with Repetitive Contact at a Single Point

 

Sample oscillation causes the probe to impact on the surface. When a change in the contact energy occurs (after fracture of the surface or partial debonding of a coating) a change in probe recoil takes place. Changes in probe depth reveal surface damage (erosive wear).

 

Measuring Thin Film Adhesion Failure with Scanning Impact Testing

 

Transverse sample movement during scanning at either constant or steadily increasing load causes the test probe to continuously impact along the wear track, simulating many film failure situations, e.g. erosive wear and coating adhesion failure. Tool bit coatings for example, invariably impact the workpiece at slightly different locations due to vibration. The impact energy is determined by the oscillation amplitude and frequency and the underlying applied load. Film failure is detected through changes in probe displacement during scanning.

 

 

Impact Testing is essential for...

  • Instrumented Erosive Wear Testing

  • Interfacial Debonding of Polymer Layers
  • Thin Film Adhesion Failure

Specifications

  • Single and Multi-point impact testing for erosive wear, contact fatigue and thin film adhesion testing. Including piezoelectric oscillation system, signal generator, amplifier and data analysis and control software.

  • Frequency range 0-500 Hz

  • Maximum sample amplitude - 7 µm

 

 

Contact Fatigue Delamination of Multi-Layer Polymer Films

 

...when the film fails there is an easily recognised shift in probe position...

 

 
More information on the Impact Testing module can be found in the following Application Notes

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