Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches Tribology Cell for its Rheometer Line

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has launched a tribology cell for its rheometer product line. Rheometers with a normal force sensor like the Thermo Scientific HAAKE MARS or Thermo Scientific HAAKE RheoStress 6000 are now capable of analyzing a bearing material’s tribological behavior.

The Company says that the tribological interactions occur whenever two or more materials slide or rub over another. These have a huge impact on bearing design, affecting disciplines from mechanical to medical engineering, industries such as aerospace and defense as well as drive and control technology.

The tribology cell for the Thermo Scientific rheometers consists of a lower and an upper measuring geometry made of stainless steel. The lower one is designed as a reservoir and enables friction measurements of bearing materials with and without lubricant. The counterpart is equipped with a flexible shaft to ensure the concentric position of a ball made of steel or other materials, e.g. ceramic.

As it is recommended to perform any test with a new ball, the measuring cell design makes sure that the ball can be exchanged. The measuring cell can be integrated into the rheometer’s Control Test Chamber or into a Peltier temperature control unit for temperature-dependent tests between - 40°C and 200°C.

By using the Thermo Scientific HAAKE RheoWin measuring and evaluation software for rheometers, a fully automated procedure can be defined to measure the tribological behavior of material combinations with or without lubrication.