Paper EW-TuL4
Combined Mechanical and Optical Analysis Methods for Surfaces and Coatings

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 1:20 pm, Room Exhibit Hall

In the matter of materials development and device design, the optimization of material properties is instrumental to success of a coating system or surface functionality. CSM Instruments, a company specializing in advanced mechanical surface characterization, offers a wide range of mechanical contact-based testing instruments at the micro- and nano-scale for this purpose. This includes indentation testers for hardness, elastic modulus, creep, and fatigue behavior, tribometers for coefficient of friction and wear measurement, and advanced scratch testing tools for analysis of coating adhesion, scratch resistance, and viscoelastic recovery. To fully characterize a materials’ behavior, these tools can be integrated with atomic force (scanning probe) or confocal microscopy to “complete the picture”, allowing you to quantify pileup volume and height, indentation depth and width, scratch track width and angle, and spall (chip) size and shape, amongst other deformation features. This presentation will discuss how mechanical and optical tools can be easily combined on a single testing platform. A number of interesting examples from materials research and industrial design centers will also be presented, with explanation of what can be learned from each capability.