Nanoscale Wear Analysis
The effects of wear at the nanometer scale become critical to the optimization
and stability of machines as the tolerances in precision machines become
smaller and smaller. Traditional microscopes such as the optical and scanning
electron microscopes facilitate visualization of wear in 2-dimensions. For
example, with the SEM it is possible to get a magnified view of wear tracks
in the x-y axis but cross sectioning is required for measuring the depth of
wear tracks.
The AFM allows direct 3-dimensional visualization of wear tracks and scars.
The images may be displayed in a 2-D projection and a 3-D projection. Direct
measure of wear track depth can be easily measured with a line profile derived
from the AFM image.
Figure 1: Three-dimensional atomic force microscope (AFM) image of a
polish mark on a piece of steel. The scan range in X and Y is 3
micrometers and the entire Z range is 40 nanometers.
Figure 2: Metrological study of a scratch mark in the surface of
a polished material (stainless steel). Because the AFM directly
measures three-dimensional data, the depth of the scratch mark
is easily quantified. In this case the mark is 8.6 nm deep. Z= 8.6 nm
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