Comparison of solid substrates to differentiate the lubrication property of dairy fluids by tribological measurement

Abstract

Three popular solid substrates (surgical tape, silicone rubber and EPDM rubber) were investigated to examine the lubrication properties of water, aqueous protein solution (3.9% solids), skim (0.1% fat) and full fat (3.8% fat) milk samples with reference with their dry contacts. It was observed that the tribological properties of the test fluids were greatly affected by the physical properties of the solid substrates, particularly wettability. Surgical tape surface, having similar wettability and surface roughness to the surface of the human tongue, appeared to be the best substrate for tribological investigations because of its ability to differentiate dairy solutions with different composit..