Concept design and market screening of a surface fatigue test rig

Abstract: Swerea KIMAB is one of Europe’s leading institutes for metallic materials and excels in many different areas. KIMAB’s main advantage is its open internal structure where all groups and projects can share information and knowledge between the sections. After moving to new premises it was noted that the surface fatigue test rig that had been used had started to leak oil and was no longer suitable for new projects. Because surface fatigue testing will be of importance in the future for the development of new alloys that will replace existing alloys in for example gears, this thesis was created as a foundation for how a new test rig should be acquired.This thesis goal is to describe KIMAB’s requirements in a test rig and to do a market screening over existing solutions for test rigs. Thereafter a designed concept shall be developed for KIMAB’s specific requirements and describe how it should be made. These different parts will be the ground for how KIMAB should continue in the acquisition of a new rig.The base of the thesis is a literature study in surface fatigue, its mechanics and how these can be affected to give the desired test scenario. This information is used to make a market screening for suitable test rigs that fulfils the requirements. Thereafter a concept generation is made and evaluated during a meeting on KIMAB. The chosen concept will then be designed to be user friendly, robust and as reliable as possible.When the final concept is done and quotes from manufacturers have been gathered for most of the parts in the design, a time and cost estimation was made to give the reader the chance of deciding which alternative is the most suitable for KIMAB. This choice has to be made with regard to future projects and how the market will develop for the ordering of surface fatigue testing.