Ducom Instruments

Peenya, Bangalore, Karnataka

The purpose of this tester is to characterize friction under lubricated condition using a ball on disc configuration. This tester is particularly suited for evaluating low lubricity fluids like diesel and gasoline.

The system consists of a temperature controlled stage that houses the test plate. A reciprocating arm with a ball holder to hold the test ball is pressed against the test plate with a known force. The system reciprocates maintaining the required stroke length, frequency, load, temperature and humidity.

A piezoelectric force transducer senses the frictional force. The unit is computer controlled and uses the WinDucom Data Acquisition System to record the output parameters.

The Ducom Pin/Ball on Disk Tribometer is a test instrument designed for accurate and repeatable tribological characterization of bulk materials, coatings and lubricants. Easily changeable holders allow users to quickly change the nature of tribological contact to something that is relevant to their application. A wide range of factory installed and field upgradable options make this system very scalable, ensuring years of unhindered research for various types of applications.

The Pin/Ball on Disk Tribometer by Ducom is used by hundreds of labs worldwide for all their material bench-marking and materials development needs.

In addition to standard configurations, Ducom also offers custom developed Pin/Ball on Disk Tribometers that are designed to meet highly specialized testing needs ranging from tests in exotic environments like pressurized helium or molten sodium to very high or low temperatures, loads and speeds.

Materials, coatings and lubricants often encounter situations involving repeated back and forth (reciprocating) movements during operation. Such situations are seen in various applications ranging from automotive to bio-materials for implants. These contacts may see a range of operating conditions from low amplitude, high frequency reciprocation to high amplitude and low frequencies.

The Ducom Linear Reciprocating Tribometer is designed to allow users to characterize tribological performances of materials and lubricants in a wide range of operating conditions ranging from fretting wear conditions to large amplitude linear sliding conditions. If can effectively be used to study bulk materials, coatings, lubricants and additives. The Linear Reciprocating Tribometer can accommodate a variety of sample geometries to create point, line and area contacts. Customized sample holders can also be provided for tests requiring conformal contacts.

This system is computer controlled and includes a data acquisition software that can be used to acquire, view and report results.

The purpose is to carry out rotating bar bending fatigue tests without deliberately introducing stress concentration in accordance with DIN 50113.

A test piece mounted as a cantilever with single point loading is made to rotate and thus subjected to a bending moment. The force giving rise to the bending moment do not rotate.

Tribological properties of materials can greatly be influenced by humidity. Coatings like Diamond like Carbon (DLC) see great use in a variety of applications ranging from hard drives and automotive engines to biomedical applications. Each of these applications presents very different operating conditions which includes humidity conditions. DLC is also known to have friction properties that vary greatly with humidity. It is therefore extremely important to characterize materials for their tribological properties by including their performance dependency on parameters like humidity.

The Ducom Humidity Generator is a stand-alone system that can easily be plugged into any compatible Ducom Tribometer. This extends the capability of your existing or new tribometer to include the ability to carry out tests and understand material behavior under a variety of humidity conditions.

The Ducom Humidity Controller is capable of producing an output of dry or humid air to control conditions within the test area. A combination of dry and humid air is used to create an environment of the required RH. The Humidity Controller comes with a humidity sensor that is placed within the test area and requires oil free and dust free pneumatic input. The system is self-contained with respect to drying and humidification systems and requires very little maintenance. For proper operation, the tribometer is required to have a Humidity Controller compatible enclosure.

The Digital Image Acquisition System (D-IAS) is designed as a versatile tool for pre and post test surface observations. With the D-IAS system, users can observe surfaces, take photographs and record video. Using the accompanying software package, measurements like lengths, area, etc. can be made.

The Ducom MicroForce is an innovative new platform can be used for multi-scale testing. The patented MicroForce head is used to control test load with high accuracy and measure friction force between between the range of 10 mN to 10 N.

The MicroForce, with its sub-micron resolution, is excellent for micro-scale friction measurement. This tool can be used for a variety of innovative tests including mapping the independent effects of surface force and deformation on interface friction.

Overall, the MicroForce platform is an essential tool for any lab that has an interest in multi-scale testing ad evaluating the effect of scale in tribology. The Ducom MicroForce head can also easily be integrated into various versions of the the Ducom Rotary Tribometers, Linear Reciprocating Tribometers and Scratch Testers.