An innovative mechatronic experimental system was developed, for fatigue tests of miniature cantilever beam samples, enabling to control and measure low amplitude "pulse like" load parameters and providing a solution for efficient data acquisition in long term fatigue experiments. It was required for investigating a new, analytic approach for the problem of wear, developing in a couple of sliding surfaces, as a combination of several fatigue mechanisms: As any microscopic "blunt" (contact point) on the sliding surface "meets" the opposite surface blunts, it is subjected to periodic sequences of axial and lateral "impulse like " load. This integrated mechatronic system, including a rotating body yielding 6 miniature samples, a controllable axial loading arm (3-100 grms.), functioning also as a unique, strain gage based, force sensor, and a computer program, produces automatically files of lateral force vs. cycle number, for six samples simultanaously, at 72,000 cycles per hour rate. It also identifies the fatigue failure point of each sample. The system was applied successfully in large scale fatigue experiments, supplying model verification, model accuracy estimation, as well as additional insight concerning the problem.
