Effectiveness of airborne particle monitoring technique for assessment of wear progression of mechanical components

For effective implementation of smart machine technology, there is a great demand for real-time monitoring of the wear progression of machine components. In this work, the effectiveness of assessing wear by monitoring the airborne wear particles was investigated. Sliding wear tests were performed using different combinations of stainless steel (SUS304) and alumina material pairs while monitoring the size distribution and the number of particles using a particle counter. The results showed that particles less than 2 μm in size accounted for more than 83 % of the total number of airborne particles. However, particles greater than 2 μm account for 95 % of the volume of airborne particles. Additionally, in the case of wear volume, the total wear volume, which is the sum of the plate and the ball wear volumes, should be similar to that of the total airborne particle volume. For the SUS304/SUS304 pair, the total wear volume and the total airborne particle volume were very similar. However, in the case of alumina/SUS304 and alumina/alumina, the total wear volume and total airborne particle volume were not similar, and the total wear volume was significantly higher than the total airborne particle volume. The effectiveness of the airborne particle monitoring technique depended strongly on the material pairs. This was due to the fact that particle dispersion behavior varied with respect to the wear mechanisms of the materials.