Effects of load and rotational speed on the friction and wear properties of PTFE composites

Abstract

PTFE composites has a lower hardness and shear strength than steel. Therefore, wear mainly occurs in PTFE composites itself when rubs with steel. For studying the friction and wear properties of PTFE composites, a series of experimental tests were conducted under different sliding velocities and load pressures using block-on-ring testing machine. Through weighting PTFE composites specimens before and after the experiment, we can get the wear mass losses of specimens, then the wear rate of PTFE composites is obtained by combining material density, loading pressure and wear length. At the same time, the friction coefficient is recorded in real time by the monitoring system of the testing machine The analysis results are as follows: at constant sliding velocities, the wear rate of PTFE composites gradually decreases with the increase of loading pressure; at constant loading pressure, the wear rate of PFTE composites decreases gradually with the increase of sliding speed. This leads to further conclusions that motor should not run in low speed range for a long time when PTFE composites is used as motor bearing material.