Design and development of a novel sliding friction and wear tester with complex working conditions

Serious wear phenomena occur in mining machinery under complex working conditions, and the wear of machine parts is primarily caused by the synergistic effect of adhesive wear, abrasive wear, corrosive wear, etc. However, the existing friction and wear testing equipment cannot be used to carry out wear tests under complex working conditions. To simultaneously meet the test requirements of adhesive wear, abrasive wear, and corrosive wear, a novel sliding friction and wear tester that can simulate complex working conditions was developed in the present research. The tester is composed of a loading mechanism, a speed-regulating mechanism, a corrosion chamber, and a control and display system. Wear tests of the middle plate of a scraper conveyor, a key equipment of coal mining, were carried out to verify the consistency and effectiveness of the tester. The test results were consistent, and those under the same test conditions were similar with a maximum standard deviation of 2.4 mg. The wear condition of the middle plate specimens was close to the actual wear condition of the middle plate. Moreover, the surfaces of the middle plate specimens after grinding exhibited obvious adhesive, abrasive, and corrosive wear characteristics, and the wear degrees of the specimens under the same test conditions were similar. The quality loss of the middle plate specimens was found to increase with the increase of coal gangue percentage, and the main wear mechanism was the synergistic action of abrasive, adhesive, and corrosive wear.