A Method for Tribological Measurements of Coated Abrasives using a Rheometer

Coated abrasives (sandpaper) are imperative in various industrial areas, including the automotive and the metal industry. An exact outcome is often highly appreciated in abrasion processes, which means that the wear process must be precisely controlled. In this paper, a new method for analyzing the grinding process of coated abrasives is proposed. In order to study the grinding properties of sandpaper, a tribology cell was connected to a rheometer. The experiments consisted of unlubricated (dry) steel balls-on-disc experiments on coated abrasive with aluminum oxide grains. The friction and wear data showed that the rheometer equipped with a tribology cell can be used to measure different tribological parameters, such as the friction coefficient and the Gap. The wear process was investigated over a range of abrasive grain sizes (9–40 µm) and a variety of different loads (1–10 N). Results from these experiments showed that the abrasive wear increased with increasing particle size and normal load. Hence, it is proposed that this method is a reliable approach for investigating the wear process of coated abrasives.