Evaluation of material wear properties with the Ueshima FPS wear testing system
by Eric Britton and Jaden Slovensky, ACE Laboratories.
Along with flexibility, the durability of vulcanized rubber is one of the primary reasons for its rapid expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Although its use in tires is one of its most known applications, the inherent wear resistance of rubber is one of the overall defining features of the
material. For dynamic applications, decades of research have gone into extending the life of rubber goods, and abrasion resistance continues to be
a significant focus of the industry’s technical resources to this day. However, one of the largest gaps in rubber durability research and development
continues to be the correlation between laboratory scale benchtop testing and product field testing.