Taber Abrasion

The Taber abrasion test is used to determine a materials resistance to wear eg. mechanical rubbing, scraping or erosive action. A large variety of materials can be tested including paints, lacquers, textiles and plastics. Where no previous wear data exists, Taber abrasion can often be used to provide a benchmark. Common test protocols are ASTM D1044 and ASTM D4060. The latter provides a method to calculate a Taber Wear Index which allows materials to be compared using different loads and number of cycles. Taber abrasion samples shall be approximately 100 x 100mm square or 100mm diameter if round samples are more practicable. Samples should be flat and with a 6.3mm hole in the centre. The thickness of the samples should be less than 10mm but overall weight of each sample should not be greater than 180g to be within the capacity of most 0.1mg analytical balances. This is particularly important when heavier substrates such as steel or ceramics are used. Sample sets are preferably tested in triplicate where the mean of 3 readings are used as the final result. A Taber abrasion test can be used either as a stand-alone test or before and after a secondary test (eg UV exposure) to establish any loss of wear resistance after accelerated aging. We are able to offer linear abrasion testing using the Elcometer 1720 machine which can also be used as a washability tester for the automotive sector (to establish car wash brush abrasion resistance) and generic crockmeter testing for many different materials. Our linear abrasion capability has been useful to establish relative performance of automotive wax polishes and other thin film coatings designed to protect sensitive electronic components including PCBs and abrasion performance of structural hydrophobic coatings for the nano-technology sector. For more information regarding Taber and linear abrasion tests, please do not hesitate to contact us to further discuss your requirements.