On the Mechanism of Self-Lubrication in Metal-Polymer Electrical Contacts

Abstract

One of the most important problems of the modern triboengineering materials science is the development and study of new self-lubricated materials for sliding electrical contacts. The establishment of principles of self-lubricated conducting materials is based on a deep knowledge of the phenomena occurring during their frictional interaction with the counterface. It is believed that the efficiency of sliding contacts is closely related to the ability of materials to form transfer films on the counterface. The present paper shows that when metal-polymer materials are used as contacts, the contact behavior depends on the processes of generation and regeneration of transfer films. A new technique, designed and applied for the examination of surface layers of the materials, together with known procedures allowed a comparison of surface properties, such as electrophysical and topographic, of the metal-polymer friction transfer films with those formed by conventional compounds. The kinetics of the metal-polymer ...