Micro-scale abrasive wear of some sealing elastomers

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the micro-abrasive wear of some common sealing elastomers by the micro-scale abrasion test. It has been employed to try hard materials, such as: mild steel, Cr-white cast iron, aluminum alloys, tool steel, polymers, etc, since it exhibits good accuracy and repeatability, however, it has not been implemented to test elastomers. In dynamic seals, micro-abrasive wear is produced because hard micro-debris are dragged by the lubricant film to the sealing interface during the machine operation, which accelerates the normal lubricated sliding wear. In order to see the capability of the micro-abrasion test to evaluate sealing elastomers, four materials were tried under different loads and progressive sliding distances using a TE66 micro-scale abrasion tester. The morphology of the wear scars was studied by SEM images. Hence, particular micro-abrasive wear patterns were found. Also, the wear volumes were assessed by optical profilometry since some scars did not met spherical caps as those occurred in hard materials. Thus, the test was effective to reproduce localized and consistent scars with micro-abrasion features by conducting short experiments, meaning it could be potentially used as an accelerated wear method for the characterization of sealing elastomers.