Design of Pin-on-Disk Type Abrasion Testing Machine for Durability Assessment of Rock Cutting Tools

The accurate evaluation of rock abrasion is essential for the estimation of cutter costs in rock cutting and drilling operations. In this study, a novel abrasion testing machine was developed for rock cutting tools such as pick cutters. The developed machine employs the pin-on-disk abrasion method of ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials). The Archimedean spiral function was selected as the moving path for the pin on the rock surface. An approximation solution was adopted for the modeling of the inward and outward spiral motions under the constant velocity of the pin. After investigating the operating conditions of the pick cutter under actual cutting conditions, the specifications of the machine were set to simulate field conditions, and the testing apparatus was designed. A finite element analysis was conducted to investigate the structural stability of the machine. After the verification of the design through numerical modeling, the test unit was manufactured. Validation tests were conducted on various rock samples. The results confirmed that the abrasion testing machine effectively followed the designated pre-designed spiral path. This paper, therefore, proposes a pin-on-disk type abrasion testing method which can simulate the actual abrasion phenomenon on the real cutting conditions (i.e., force and velocity) of rock cutting tools.