You are in: home » BC-2 Ball Crater

BC-2 Ball Crater

The BC-2 ball crater equipment is designed for producing a taper section on a coated sample to enable analysis of coating properties such as coating thickness, wear, interface sharpness, layer thickness and coating adhesion.

Specification

• Ball; AISI 52100m Grade 25 Chromium steel; 25mm and 30mm balls supplied
• Polishing agent: 0.25 micron diamond paste
• Output shaft: 3 to 12 rpm (using 30mm ball)
• An optical microscope with a magnification of 100 to 400x is recommended to observe and analyse the resulting ball crater.

click here for the full specification

Thickness Determination

This figure shows a taper section through a three layer DLC coating with the TiN, TiCN and the DLC layers clearly visible. The dimensions x and y, to be measured for calculation of the total coating thickness t of all three layers, are shown. The total coating thickness is then given from the following equation: total thickness t = y (d + y) / ball diameter The thickness of the three individual layers can also be measured from the same crater.

Wear Determination

The amount of wear produced by a wear test can be analysed using the ball crater technique. By creating a taper section on top of a wear track measurements can be made and used for calculation of the coating thickness remaining in the wear track. The amount of wear in microns, (wear depth) can then be calculated by subtracting the remaining coating thickness from the original coating thickness. This value can then be used in conjunction with the sliding distance during the test to obtain a value for specific wear rate, for the coating.

Identification Of Deformation

A taper cross section produced by the ball crater technique can give useful information about coating and substrate deformation. In this picture the substrate material beneath a Graphit-iC coating has been unable to support the entire load during a wear test which has resulted in plastic deformation of the substrate and coating.

Interface Analysis

This photograph of a ball crater section through a coating shows adhesion failure at the interface between the steel substrate and the coating.

All BC2 Ball Crater enquiries should be directed to the relevant Sales Team:

Sales Team – Coating Equipment:
Tel: 01905 827550
Email: sales@teercoatings.co.uk