Micro-scale abrasive wear of coated surfaces-prediction models

Micro-scale abrasive wear testing is widely used to characterise thinly coated surfaces. Beyond the several advantages of this technique, the possibility of finding the specific wear rates both for the substrate and for the coating with only one set of tests on coated specimens is certainly an important reason for the rapid spread of the micro-scale abrasive technique. It has not yet been established if the coating and the uncoated substrate can be characterized separately, with the results subsequently being used to calculate the wear characteristics of thin-coated surfaces. This paper concerns the development of a model to predict the behaviour of coated surfaces, based on previous characterisation of the coating and of the substrate in non-perforating tests. By comparison with experimental results, the method developed is used to forecast the abrasion resistance of TiN and of thinly coated copper specimens.