A study on the precision wear measurement for a high friction and high pressurized gun barrel by using a diamond indenter

A precision wear measurement system is developed to measure the wear rate of a high friction and high pressurized gun barrel. The system consists of an indentation apparatus and an optical measuring system. The indentation apparatus has a pair of diamond indenters so that it makes indents on the land of rifling by using a pneumatic system. The speed of indentation is regulated by a control valve to get the same effect of dead weight as that of a hardness tester. The X-Y-theta stage of the measuring system can trace the positions of the indents. The optical measuring system sends the surface image of the diamond indent to the monitor and the video printer. The variation of the diagonal of each indent after the test is converted to the wear depth. The system makes it possible to measure the wear of bore precisely in a short period experiment. It is effectively applied to the gun barrel for predicting its life expectancy. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.