High‐precision positioning and measurement systems for microtribotesting

A key problem in microtribology is measurement equipment in the micronewton force regime. This work reports on a new generation of test devices for materials research that closes the gap existing between the so-called ‘macrotribometers’ and ‘nanotribometers’. The systems incorporate novel mechatronic systems for force measurements based on a combination of photostructured glass and high-resolution fiber-optic sensors. In addition, precision drives operating at high speed enable rapid sample positioning and sample motion in different modes. The flexibility of the concept allows tribological examinations of a wide variety of materials and material pairings to be performed with various geometrical configurations. An important feature of the system is modularity, which gives the researcher tremendous flexibility in designing experiments. Furthermore, such systems can easily be added in multi-analysis environments. Modularity is realized at the hardware level by the possibility of rapidly exchanging drive modules and/or force transducer(s) depending on the user-defined measurement requirements. Also, the test equipment presented can operate in a wide normal and tangential force regime (exchange of measurement head, force transducer) as well as in different motion configurations. It thus bridges the gap between ‘macro’ and ‘nano’ measurement systems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.