The article provides a discussion on the parameters influencing abrasive wear and the elements and standards of abrasion wear tests. It emphasizes the general test procedures, advantages, and limitations of various types of abrasive wear testing. Wear testing for scratch wear, dry abrasion against fixed particles, dry abrasion against loose particles, wet abrasion against fixed or loose particles, gouging-abrasion, small particle erosion, impact abrasion, slurry abrasion, and microabrasion, are also discussed.

Mechanical cleaning systems are used to remove contaminants of work surface by propelling abrasive materials through any of these three principal methods: airless centrifugal blast blade- or vane-type wheels; compressed air, direct-pressure dry blast nozzle systems; or compressed-air, indirect-suction (induction) wet or dry blast nozzle systems. This article focuses on the abrasive media, equipment, applications, and limitations of dry and wet blast cleaning. It discusses the health and safety precautions to be taken during mechanical cleaning.

Solid particle erosion (SPE) is the loss of material that results from repeated impact of solid particles energized in a carrier fluid. This article reviews important SPE variables, their effects for different classes of materials, composites and coatings, and the mechanisms and theories proposed to explain SPE. It discusses the SPE of metals, steels, and ceramics, as well as erosion of alloys with coarse, nominally two-phase microstructures in which the second-phase particles (SPPs) are typically large compared with the dimensions of the damage zone created by the impact of one particle. The article summarizes the erosion characteristics of polymer matrix composites (PMCs), metal matrix composites (MMCs), ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), and erosion-resistant coatings. The combination of parameters included in most erosion models is also summarized.

Stainless steels are essential for the modern industrial civilization because of their corrosion resistance, especially in the chemical, petrochemical, and food industries. This article discusses the classification of the various types of stainless steels, including martensitic, ferritic, austenitic, duplex (ferritic-austenitic), and precipitation-hardening stainless steels. It presents a checklist of characteristics to be considered in selecting the proper type of stainless steel for a specific application. The article also outlines the need to promote the formation of an effective protective passive layer in stainless steels. It discusses hardness, fatigue and fretting properties, tribological properties, wear resistance, and corrosion-wear process of the S-phase layer. The article describes two thermochemical nitriding techniques of stainless steels: plasma-assisted nitriding techniques and non-plasma assisted nitriding processes. It also describes the difficulties in stainless steel nitriding/carburizing.