Wear and erosion tests
Our durability laboratory for wear and erosion testing is unique in Australia. The equipment are used in the development of the next generation of hard-facing alloys and for testing of materials to determine their fitness-for-purpose.
The challenge
There are many laser and PTA job shops providing services for mineral resource sectors in Australia. There are gaps in materials performance database between these service providers and end users. CSIRO occupies a unique position in this space. It has both deposition facilities (such as laser and PTA system) and comprehensive testing facilities which include low and high stress abrasion and adhesion, impact wear, slurry abrasivity, particle impingement, cavitation erosion, etc. It hosts expertise and resources to define wear or damage modes, develop new alloys, testing with appropriate and simulative wear assessment, correlation between microstructure and property. CSIRO is keen to work with industry to apply its knowledge for field evaluations in order to establish correlation between laboratory and field test data.
Our response
CSIRO has extensive wear testing equipment in the Durability laboratory. These equipments are for testing and assessing hardfacing alloys developed at CSIRO facility which has two high power laser and PTA systems and multi-hopper powder delivery system. However, the laboratory is also designed to test samples from outside. This laboratory provides crucial information as a pre-qualifying assessment for service performance. Extensive knowledge in understanding wear modes and selection of test procedures will allow us to predict field or service performance of hardfacing deposit or overlay.
CSIRO is keen to actively participate and help job shops to provide laboratory test data and to establish link with field data. This will enable job shops to effectively engage with end users and provide competitive advantages over others.