Influence of Additively Manufactured Polymer Counterbody Geometry and Material on Measurement Variability in Three-Body Ball-on-Disk Wear Testing

Three-body abrasive wear is one of the most common wear mechanisms in industrial applications. The ASTM G75 Miller test is widely used for evaluating abrasive wear resistance under slurry conditions. However, the standard method requires long testing times, offers limited flexibility in test configuration, and often exhibits considerable variability in the measured wear results. These limitations restrict its suitability for rapid material screening and systematic parameter investigations.

In this work, a flexible tribological test method was developed as an alternative to the conventional Miller test. The key element of the concept is an additively manufactured polymer counterbody (pin), enabling rapid modification of both geometry and material while maintaining a constant nominal contact pressure. The modular approach allows systematic investigation of the influence of counterbody design on the tribological response.

Experimental results demonstrate that both the counterbody geometry and polymer material significantly influence the wear behavior, affecting both material removal and test reproducibility. Optimized test configurations achieved higher material removal together with lower coefficients of variation, indicating improved repeatability.

The developed test method provides a flexible and reproducible approach for investigating three-body abrasive wear while substantially reducing experimental effort compared with the conventional Miller test. The concept offers considerable potential for accelerated material screening and systematic studies of wear mechanisms under slurry conditions.