NFSI Approved Tribometers

The NFSI Tribometer Selection Process requires that Tribometer Manufacturers submit an extensive Inter-laboratory Study (ILS) which displays the testing capabilities of the tribometer seeking NFSI approval. Upon review of the current tribometers that have been submitted for NFSI Approval, the following have passed receiving official NFSI Approval:

Static Coefficient of Friction (SCOF)

• Universal Walkway Tester (UWT)
• GS-1
• TRACSCAN
• TRACSCAN 2.0
  
• ASM 825B

BOT-3000e Tribometer Approval Status

In the spring of 2014, Regan Scientific Instruments notified the NFSI that they had made an engineering revision of the BOT-3000 tribometer and that a newer version called the BOT-3000e would soon be released and will replace the BOT-3000. On August 26, 2014, Regan Scientific Instruments forwarded an engineering comparison study of the BOT-3000 and 3000e devices which was authored by Moore Engineering Services and Garrett Heilbrun Technology Partners, L.L.C. which concluded that the BOT-3000 and 3000e devices were in compliance with the revision control provision as required in Section 2. of the NFSI’s 2011 Tribometer Selection Process (TSP). Based on the study on August 27, 2014 the BOT-3000e was granted provisional approval.

Although the Moore Engineering and Garrett Heilbrun Technology Partners, LLC study claimed that there was a high level of repeatability and reproducibility between the BOT-3000 and BOT-3000e devices, since 2014 the BOT-3000e has undergone multiple design changes, a revised sensor preparation procedure, as well as numerous software modifications which under the requirements of the NFSI’s 2017 and 2019 TSP require the re-submission of an ILS.  Regan Scientific Instruments failed to complete the re-submission process and therefore forfeited their status as an NFSI Approved Tribometer.