Abrasion Testing

Abrasion testing is used to test the abrasive resistance of materials.  Various materials can be tested with these methods which include Taber Abrasion, Crockmeter and Martindale.

Taber Abrasion is performed by mounting a flat specimen to a turntable platform that rotates two abrasive wheels over the specimen at a fixed speed and pressure.  Various properties can be evaluated such as weight loss, wear resistance, appearance changes, etc.

Crockmeter abrasion is a quick and accurate method to determine how much colour is transferred from textile materials to other surfaces by means of rubbing.  The Crockmeter was originally designed to simulate rubbing by a person’s fingers or forearm.  The rubbing action is provided by a “finger” tip with a 16mm diameter moving forward and backwards in a straight line with a complete turn of the crank known as 1 cycle. The load arm provides a constant 9N load on the sample at all times and the counter keep track of the number of cycles. Typical evaluation would be to compare the amount of colour transfer/staining against a standardized colour scale such as the AATCC grayscale for staining.

Martindale abrasion quantify the abrasion resistance of textiles especially upholstery.  This method simulates natural wear where the textile sample is rubbed against a standard abrasive surface with a specified force.  The equipment works in intervals of 5000cycles.  The higher the wear number (more cycles) the better the better the resistance of the material to abrasion.