Abstract
This paper describes the development and verification of a reciprocating test rig, which was designed to study the piston ring tribology. A crank mechanism is used to generate a reciprocating motion for a moving plate, which acts as the liner. A stationary block acting as the ring package is loaded against the plate using dead-weights. The block has two holders for test specimens, which form line contacts with the plate. A force transducer is used to measure the frictional force between the block and the plate. During verification of the test rig unwanted ripples on the signal recorded from the force transducer were discovered. An identification process is undertaken in order to find the source of this disturbance and to reduce the effect as much as possible. Second a reproducibility test is conducted to check the reliability of the test rig. The outcome of this work is a verified test rig, which is suitable for the study of piston ring tribology.