The device is used to check abrasion strength of printed circuit boards scratches are made across five pairs of conducting parts and the intervening separations at points where the separations will be subject to the maximum potential gradient during the tests.

The scratches are made by means of a hardened steel pin, the end of which has the form of a cone having a tip angle of 40°, its tip being rounded and polished, with a radius of 0,25 mm ± 0,02 mm. Scratches are made by drawing the pin along the surface in a plane perpendicular to the conductor edges at a speed of 20 mm/s ± 5 mm/s. The pin is so loaded that the force exerted along its axis is 10 N ± 0,5 N.