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As part of the Jones Faculty Lecture series, Scott R. Hummel, associate professor of mechanical engineering, will present “Analysis and Improvement of the ASTM Galling Resistance Wear Test” 8 p.m. Thursday in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104.
A reception will follow the lecture. The event is free and open to the public.
Hummel’s lecture will focus on Lafayette’s investigation of the American Society of Testing and Material’s (ASTM) standard test method. Teams at Lafayette have developed several improvements being considered for implementation by ASTM. The standard test method is a benchmark for design decisions involving galling, a severe form of wear that comes from non-lubricated metal-to-metal contact.
Hummel has done extensive research on the subject with Lafayette students. He guided the honors thesis of Ryan Waite ’05, a mechanical engineering major who assembled, modified, and validated the galling machine created by Lafayette students as a senior design project in 2004. The machine was originally built to automate the galling resistance test method.
Exactly how galling occurs is not known. The accepted test for it was discovered during research completed at Lafayette two years ago, but it needs improvement. The purpose of the Lafayette prototype machine is to obtain more precise results.
Adam Faroni ’04 presented “Development of a New Test Apparatus and Procedure for Threshold Galling Testing,” a paper he co-authored with fellow mechanical engineering majors David Philips ’04 and Kelly Hacker ’04, at the 18th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research hosted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Hummel oversaw the project that led to their findings.
Before joining the Lafayette faculty, Hummel was an engineering manager at Hummel Machine and Tool Co. in Kearny, N.J., where he designed surgical instruments for the insertion and extraction of orthopedic implants such as bone screws, knee replacements, and artificial hips.
Owner of two U.S. patents, Hummel teaches courses in mechanical design and manufacturing and advises students who are researching galling in stainless steel. Their results have been published in Tribology International and Wear and presented at the ASTM Committee Week conference. Hummel was awarded a National Science Foundation grant and appointed chairman of a Galling Resistance Test Review Task Group by the ASTM Subcommittee on Non-Abrasive Wear. The ASTM is reviewing his line contact test for galling resistance testing methods to consider making it an alternative form of standardization.
The lecture is sponsored by the Thomas Roy and Lura Forest Jones Faculty Lecture and Awards Fund, established in 1966 to recognize superior teaching and scholarship at Lafayette. Hummel and Paul A. Cefalu, assistant professor of English, are this year’s recipients.