In running-in period, wear plays an important role in the service-life of machines. Wear is beneficial if it occurs smoothly and gradually. The object of this work is to assess the effectiveness of wear particles analysis in characterising the running-in period. A high performance dise machines, with two discs running edge-to-edge, under steady load and different slide-rolling ratios was used. The behaviour of this lubricated Hertzien contact has been followed by three analysing methods:
- Ferrography analysis of the concentration, size and morphology of wear particles.
- Spectrometry oil analysis of iron content in lubricants.
- Micro-geometry analysis of tested surfaces
The results are compared and analysed with respect to running-in phenomena.
Results show that the running-in period has been detected well by two methods, ferregraphy analysis of wear particles and micro-geometry analysis. The spectrometry failed to detect this phenomena due to its insensitivity to large particles.