Abrasion Testing Services in Houston: ASTM G65, B611, G105 and G76
Abrasion is the quiet failure mode. Nothing cracks, nothing corrodes, the part just gets thinner until it stops doing its job. US Corrosion Services runs standardized abrasion and erosion tests in our Houston lab so you can rank materials, hardfacings and coatings against each other with numbers instead of field anecdotes. We build and maintain our own test fixtures, we sit on ASTM committees, and we report what the data shows.
Which abrasion test do you actually need?
The most common mistake in wear testing is picking the test by familiarity rather than by mechanism. Abrasive wear splits into a few common types, and materials rank differently in each one.
Low stress abrasion is sliding contact where the abrasive stays intact. Sand against a conveyor liner, drilling fluid against a stabilizer. Hardness dominates the ranking. This is the territory of ASTM G65 dry sand rubber wheel testing and its wet cousin, ASTM G105.
High stress abrasion is contact severe enough to crush the abrasive. Fresh, sharp fragments and high local stress start pulling grains out of the material rather than scratching it. Toughness matters as much as hardness here, and a grade that wins G65 can lose badly. This is ASTM B611 steel wheel testing, used mostly for cemented carbides and hard overlays.
Erosion is particles arriving at velocity rather than sliding under load. Impingement angle changes everything: brittle materials fail at 90 degrees, ductile ones at shallow angles. That’s ASTM G76 solid particle erosion.
For a broader background on the mechanisms, the Wikipedia article on abrasive wear is a solid starting point.
| Test | Counterface | Abrasive | Abrasive fractures? | Typical materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASTM G65 | Rubber wheel, dry | 50/70 quartz sand | No | Steels, hardfacings, coatings, polymers |
| ASTM G105 | Rubber wheel, wet slurry | Quartz sand | No | Same, under wet or slurry service |
| ASTM B611 | Steel wheel, wet slurry | 30 grit alumina | Yes | Cemented carbides, ceramics, MMC overlays |
| ASTM G76 | Gas jet | 50 micron alumina | N/A | Coatings, turbine and flow components |
What we run in-house
Our G65 and B611 rigs are dedicated machines, not shared fixtures, so turnaround is usually two weeks or less. B611 runs on a steel wheel and slurry trough we fabricated specifically for carbide programs. We measure mass loss on a calibrated balance and convert to volume loss using measured density, since carbide grades with different cobalt content can’t be compared on mass alone.
Every specimen gets photographed before and after, and the scar is available for 3D profilometry and metallographic sectioning if you want to see the wear mechanism rather than just the number. All abrasion work runs under our ISO 9001 aligned quality system.
Beyond mass loss
A wear number by itself tells you which coupon lost the most material. It doesn’t tell you why. Most of our abrasion programs pair the test with hardness testing and SEM and EDS characterization of the scar, and for carbides and ceramics we increasingly add fracture toughness and transverse rupture strength. Grain pullout, binder extrusion and microfracture all look different under the microscope, and knowing which one you have is what lets you pick a better grade instead of just a harder one.
For coated parts, the same specimens feed directly into our coatings assessment and characterization work, where we look at adhesion, porosity and thickness alongside wear.
A practical example
A drilling tool manufacturer asked us to qualify carbide inserts from two alternate suppliers against their incumbent. On G65 the new grades looked equivalent or slightly better, which tracked with their higher hardness. On B611 the ranking flipped: the incumbent’s coarser grain and higher binder content held grains under crushing contact, and the hardest alternate lost material fastest. The field application was rock drilling, which is high stress abrasion. Choosing on G65 alone would have qualified the wrong material. The full program combined B611, hardness and transverse rupture strength, and the fracture toughness data explained the flip in rankings.
Who uses abrasion testing
Drill bit and downhole tool manufacturers, hardfacing and thermal spray applicators, mining and aggregate equipment suppliers, slurry pump and valve OEMs, and anyone writing a purchase specification who wants a number to hold suppliers to. We also run abrasion tests as part of failure analysis when a part wore out faster than its spec sheet promised.
Abrasion standards are maintained by ASTM Committee G02 on Wear and Erosion, which we follow closely for revisions to G65 and related methods.
Getting started
Send us a few photos of the part or coupon, the service conditions, and the materials you want to compare. We’ll recommend the right test and reply with a quote, usually the same day. If you need a test method written into a specification, we can help with that too. Contact us or see our full list of ASTM testing services.