Test Procedures & Specifications

Textile manufacturers use different types of testing to test their materials for abrasion resistance. Such tests have exotic sounding names like the Wyzenbeek and Taber tests. However, on many types of materials such testing is not valid. Specifically, these tests do not accurately reflect on those materials that are coated with a polymer. The reason for this is the abrasive surface used in the test, often an abrasive wheel, becomes clogged with the coating. Consequently, the wheel’s surface becomes smooth in a very short time and the resistance to abrasion of the tested material is never really tested.

At FJORD, we test the nylon used in our Chafe-Pro® units not only to fiber abrasion, but also through material destruction as well. We believe this is the only valid way to test the material used in the manufacturing of chafing gear. The Chafe-Pro® development team has devised a “real world” method of testing. In this test, a renewable-abrasive surface is used on an industrial grade sander that is applied at constant pressure as a function of timed intervals to the unit’s protective shield. This test is used to:

1) measure the amount of time until shield destruction
2) the temperature breakdown characteristics of the shield (i.e., time until shield meltdown)

In order to have comparative data relative to other abrasion tests, we also use the Wyzenbeek method.

The abrasion and heat destruction testing is done with a ¾ hp, 3″ industrial-grade belt sander.

Note: Testing was done against HMW-PE a material used by our competition.

A) Competitor’s model lasted on 7 seconds to destruction.
B) Competitor’s model lasted only 2 minutes to material melt.
C) Competitor’s model lasted only 65,000 cycles.