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Scratch Test

CSM Scratch Testers are dedicated instruments for characterizing the surface mechanical properties of thin films and coatings, e.g. adhesion, fracture and deformation. The scratch tester's ability to characterize the film-substrate system and to quantify parameters such as friction and adhesive strength, using a variety of complementary methods, makes it an invaluable tool for research, development and quality control.

This technique involves generating a controlled scratch with a sharp tip on a selected area. The tip material (commonly diamond or hard metal (WC)) is drawn across the coated surface under constant, incremental or progressive load.
At a certain critical load the coating will start to fail. The critical loads are very precisely detected by means of an acoustic sensor (MST & RST) attached to the load arm but can also be confirmed and collated with observations from a built-in optical microscope. The critical load data is used to quantify the adhesive properties of different film - substrate combinations.
In addition to acoustic emission, the Scratch Testers measure the applied normal force, the tangential (friction) force and the penetration depth. These parameters, together with the acoustic emission data, provide the mechanical signature of the coating system.

 

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Scratch Catalog
Products catalogs
Application Bulletin n°30

Nanoindentation and Nanoscratch of Oxide Coatings on Thin Film Polymer Substrates

Measurement of Acoustic Emission during Microindentation
Application Bulletin n°28

Characterization of thermal spray coatings by instrumented indentation and scratch testing: Part l
Application Bulletin n°27

Mechanical properties of ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films with an influence of the nucleation density on the structure
Application Bulletin n°26

The Influence of the Rockwell Indenter Tip Geometry on the Progressive Load Scratch Test
Application Bulletin n°25

Influence of indenter tip radius on the scratch resistance of an automotive clearcoat
Application Bulletin n°18

Indentation, Tribology and Scratch Test Standards
Application Bulletin n°16

- Automotive Applications
- Tribometer Lifetime Study of Wheel Bearings
- Elasto-plastic properties of polymeric varnishes
- Wear properties of rubber seals
- Friction and wear on Brake Pads
- Hardness of DLC-coated tappets
- Controlled lubricant studies
- Scratch resistance of chrome-plated trim
- Adhesion of polymeric bumper paint
- Mechanical properties of automotive tyre
Application Bulletin n°15

- Characterization of Polymers
- Quality Control of Minidisk polymer topcoat with Nano Scratch Tester and Tribometer
- Nano Scratch method developed as reference test for polymeric automobile topcoats
- Failure properties of nail varnish investigated with the Micro Scratch Teste

Application Bulletin n°14

- Measurement of hardness as a function of depth in nitrided 316L stainless steel
- Scratch Test Atlas of typical failure modes obtained in scratch testing with the Revetest instrument
- High-Temp. Tribometer for friction comparison of automobile brake pad materials
Application Bulletin n°13

- Influence of tip size on the critical load during scratch testing with the Micro Scratch Tester
- Failure of TiN-coated polymer measured with the Pin-on-Disk Tribometer
- Nano-Scratch Tester (NST) for measurement of dielectric thin films

Application Bulletin n°12

- Micro-Electronic Applications
- Nano-Scratch Tester (NST) for characterizing anti-stiction coatings for Microsystems
- In-situ Integrated Circuit (IC) characterization with the Nano Hardness Tester (NHT)
- Quality control of Micro-Slit reflective coating with the Nano-Scratch Tester (NST)
Application Bulletin n°11

- Nanoindentation with spherical indenters for characterization of stress-strain properties
- Characterization of IC bonded gold wires with the Nano Hardness Tester (NHT)
- New Nano-Scratch Tester (NST) allows better magnetic hard disk characterization
Application Bulletin n°09

- MST Swinging Module for variable frequency scratch testing
- Combined NHT/SFM for investigation the mechanical properties of Cr2O3 thin films
- New Industrial Calotest allows greater fl exibility for measuring over/undersized samples
Application Bulletin n°08

- New Industrial Calotest for improved coating thickness determination
- Micro Hardness Tester (MHT) for fracture toughness determination of brittle materials
- New Tribometer option for reciprocating wear testing of plasticised tickets
- Low-load Micro Scratch Tester (MST) for characterization of thin polymer films
Application Bulletin n°07

- Forthcoming Nano Scratch Tester (NST) for characterization of ultra-thin films
- Micro structured silicon wafers compared with the CSM Tribometer
- Combined NHT/SFM for investigating the tip defect of common indenters
Application Bulletin n°06

- Micro Scratch Tester (MST) for assessing the scratch resistance of SiO2 passivation layers
- High-Vacuum Tribometer for MoS2 alloy characterization
- Combined NHT/SFM for characterization of Silicon materials
Application Bulletin n°04

- Modified Pin-on-Disc Tribometer for controlled lubricant studies
- Diamond knife for MST characterization of coated optical fibers
- Controlling magnetic hard disk adhesion to ceramic substrates with the MST
- Scanning force microscopy of low load indentations into aluminum thin films
Application Bulletin n°03

- New integrated SFM objective for better characterization of NHT indentations
- Modified Micro Scratch Tester (MST) for im­proved force resolution at low loads
- Hard coating characterisation with the CSM Tribometer
Application Bulletin n°01

- New Nano-Hardness Tester (NHT) for characterization of MoS2 thin films
- Automobile bumper paint adhesion analyzed using Micro Scratch Tester (MST)
- Using CSM's Revetest (RVT) scratch-tester for Rockwell indentation
- Hard coating characterization with the Revetest (RVT) scratch tester
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