A comparative study of tribological and mechanical properties of composite polymer coatings on bearing steel

Abstract

In this study, epoxy and SU-8 resin along with its composites was coated over bearing steel. The graphite, talc and base oil were used to fabricate the composites using spin-coater. The tribological and surface characterisation tests were performed on both type of polymer and its composite using ball-on-disk setup, optical microscope, 3D optical profilometer, and goniometer, respectively. From the results, it can be seen that epoxy and its composites polymer showed lower coefficient of friction (~0.16), high wear resistance properties (> 102 times), improvement in mechanical properties (elastic modulus and hardness) (~3-4 times) and better hydrophobic nature as compared to SU-8 polymer (~34%) and its composites. Furthermore, a neural network model was developed to determine the influential parameters on specific wear rate and coefficient of friction.