  Microstructural evolution under tribological load is known to change the
friction and wear response of the entire tribological system. It is however not
yet fully understood, how these changes take place on an elementary,
mechanistic level. Revealing the temporal sequence of deformation mechanisms
under a tribological load by experiments is scarce. The discrete strain release
in the case of deformation twinning allows the identification of their temporal
sequence. Therefore, a medium stacking fault energy material, namely CoCrNi,
was investigated due to the significant contribution of deformation twinning to
the overall deformation at room temperature. The investigated grain showed
three activated twin systems. The evolution sequence of these is discussed
critically based on several twin intersection mechanisms. The experimental
analysis decodes the temporal sequence of the active twinning systems of
highest resolved shear stresses for the first time. This approach gives
experimental indications for the stress field under a tribological load.
