Wear debris analysis: Fundamental principle of wear-graphy

A new wear-graphy technology was developed, which can simultaneously identify the shape and composition of wear debris, for both metals and non-metals. The fundamental principles of the wear-graphy system and its wear-gram system are discussed here. A method was developed to distribute wear debris on a slide uniformly to reduce overlapping of wear debris while smearing. The composition identification analyzes the wear debris using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) energy spectrum, infrared-thermal imaging and X-ray imaging technology. A wear debris analysis system based on database techniques is demonstrated, and a visible digitized wear-gram is acquired based on the information of wear debris with image collection and processing of the wear debris. The method gives the morphological characteristics of the wear debris, material composition identification of the wear debris, intelligent recognition of the wear debris, and storage and management of wear debris information.