Development of a heating system for a spiral tribometer to investigate the influence of temperature on tribological systems

Tribometer measurements are used to simulate and investigate friction and wear mechanisms in sliding solid state systems. In metal forming and especially in deep drawing, tribometers are used to study the friction characteristics in the area of the stamp edge and draw edge rounding of a deep drawing tool. To replicate the reality of the deep drawing process a commercially available pin-on-disc tribometer is only useable to a certain extent because only a circular path can be traversed. At the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences in Wels a spiral tribometer has been developed that can measure the friction coefficient along the desired friction distance. During the deep drawing process the temperature on the surface of a deep drawing tool rise due to the friction and wear conditions caused by the process. In order to investigate the influence of temperature the spiral tribometer is equipped with a heating system. To verify the results, comparison tests are performed with a commercially available pin-on-disc tribometer. Comparative tests confirm that the results obtained with the developed spiral tribometer match the values of the pin-on-disc tribometer.