Tribology after surface treatment
Why hardness alone is not enough when the functional requirement is wear or friction, and how counterbody, load, lubrication and surface finish change the interpretation.
Test the contact, not only the layer
A tribological result belongs to a defined contact pair. Counterbody material, contact geometry, normal load, sliding speed, lubrication, temperature and surface finish can change the mechanism completely.
Read the wear track
Coefficient of friction is only one output. Wear volume or depth, transfer layer, debris, cracking, delamination and counterbody wear are often more informative for failure analysis.
Connect to service
The laboratory test should reproduce the dominant contact mechanism closely enough to answer the engineering question. A harder surface can still perform poorly if roughness, adhesion or counterbody compatibility is wrong.