DEVICE FOR DETERMINING THE COEFFICIENT OF SKIN FRICTION

Skin tribology is very important scientific area because of its presence in everyday life in form of friction in contact of skin surface and various materials. The most often it appears between palm skin and fingers and object which are in someone hands (pencil, mobile phone, tools, etc), and friction between skin and clothing and footwear. It is very important to know the value of friction coefficient between human skin and different materials. This paper describes a device used to determine the coefficient of friction between the palm skin and fingers and various materials that are in daily contact with the skin. The friction coefficient is determined by the use of a special device (Tribometer) designed and constructed for this purpose. This paper describes the device, the measurement procedure performed on the skin of the fingers and the palm in vivo, and gives a summary of the results.