Paul James Wilbur
Engineers at Teakwood Ct, Fort Collins, CO

5281535, Jan 25, 1994

Jun 30, 1992

7/906791

Ronghua Wei - Fort Collins CO
Paul J. Wilbur - Fort Collins CO
Samuel C. Wu - Lakewood CO

G01N 1700, G01N 1906, G01N 356

436 6

Method and apparatus are provided for testing parts and materials in a controlled environment, especially an atomic oxygen environment. The apparatus includes a housing which has sample station located in its interior to receive a test sample. A contact element contacts a surface of the test sample, and a drive reciprocates the contact element so that the surface is subjected to wear along a wear path. At least one testing fluid is introduced and removed from the interior with the locations of introduction on removal preferably being such that the testing fluid flows across the test sample. The drive may be a carriage operated through the housing sidewall by a ferromagnetic coupling, and the sample station may be a turntable rotated by a ferromagnetic coupling. A second sample station may be included so that different wear path configurations are possible. The method includes the steps of placing a test sample on a sample support station, contacting the test sample with a contact element, isolating the interior of the housing from the ambient environment, introducing and removing at least one testing fluid at locations such that the testing fluid flows across the test sample, reciprocally moving the contact element on the test sample and measuring an amount of wear after a selected interval of time.

5032421, Jul 16, 1991

Aug 21, 1990

7/570481

Srinivasan V. Sarma - Hummelstown PA
Walajabad S. Sampath - Fort Collins CO
Nagarajan Subramanian - Fort Collins CO
Paul J. Wilbur - Fort Collins CO

AMP Incorporated - Harrisburg PA

B05D 306

427 38

This invention includes a method featuring steps having a transport (64, 68) to carry metal articles (10, 14) through a vacuum chamber (62, 66, 90) containing a plasma cleaning station (32) followed by exposure to an evaporant of metal (42) generated by an E-Beam (50) caused to condense on the articles in high vacuum. A channel structure (51) is provided to cause selective condensation upon the surface of said articles. The apparatus includes several stations (101, 102, 103) to provide multiple coatings on one or both sides of an article to be coated.