Effect of molybdenum disulfide and bronze on tribological behaviors of polytetrafluoroethylene composites

Abstract

The present paper explains study of the tribological behavior for composite materials having the filler combinations of Molybdenum Disulfide and Bronze with base material of Polytetrafluoroethylene. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is polymer based compound also named as Teflon discovered by Roy J. Plunkett in the year 1938 with melting point of 327 °C. It is a crystalline solid with good stability from –2700C to + 2600C and is chemically inert to known reagents and solvents. The fillers used are 10 % Molybdenum Disulfide and Bronze is varied in the proportions as 15 %, 25 % and 40 %. The experimental testing is done using the ASTM G99 standards with three different sampling experiments. The experiments are analyzed using Taguchi and Grey Regression Analysis.The experimental samples are tested using Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron microscopy. The results of the analysis of variance for this type of materials combinations shows the optimum level of parametric setting as A3B1C3D3 corresponding to factors conditions load (3Kg), sliding distance (2Km), velocity (3.29 m/s) and material (PTFE + 40 %Bronze + 10 %MoS2). The maximum values of grey relational grades for the corresponding the factors are load (0.7610), sliding distance (0.6570), velocity (0.6688) and material (0.7176) from the ANOVA table for the experimental results. The rank order for the analysis are load > sliding distance > velocity > material. Also it can be noted that the load (50 %), material (20 %) have dominant effect on the coefficient of friction and wear. Among the interaction the effect of load-sliding distance (8 %) is considerable one.