Wd. Shen et al., STUDY OF STRESS-HARDENING AND FATIGUE OF POLYMER-COATINGS IN MARRING WITH A SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE, Tribology letter, 5(2-3), 1998, pp. 197-201
We have used a scanning probe microscope with a custom-made diamond ti
p to mar a crosslinked polymeric coating surface with an increasing nu
mber of scrapings at a fixed normal force in the same channel. The dep
th of ditches was measured, and the morphology at the bottom of the di
tches was examined after each scraping. It provides a direct experimen
tal evidence for stress-hardening and surface fatigue of a polymeric c
oating on the sub-micron scale when it undergoes marring.