Method and apparatus for measuring the damping characteristics of a friction member

An apparatus for measuring damping characteristics of a friction member comprising:

• a drive mechanism for relatively sliding a first member, as a friction member to be measured, against a second member;
• a vibration generation mechanism for vibrating said first member;
• a pressing mechanism for relatively pressing said first member against said second member;
• a first measuring unit for measuring a vibration state between said first and second members;
• and
• a second measuring unit for measuring for measuring vibrational variations of at least one of said first and second member by said pressing to obtain damped amounts based on said vibrational variations and for measuring damping characteristics of said friction member against vibrations by comparing damped amounts based on the variations in the vibration states of said first and second members, wherein
• said second measuring unit comprises means for comparing the amounts of damping caused by the variations in the vibration state of said first member before and after said pressing.