Some considerations concerning four-ball machine testing of the polyacrylamide solutions

Abstract

Polyacrylamide (PAM) is one of the most widely used and technically important water-soluble polymers. Polyacrylamide (PAM) is usually obtained by free radical polymerization of acrylamide (AM) and in its partially hydrolysed form is a synthetic straight-chain polymer of acrylamide monomers, some of which have been hydrolysed. The structure of HPAM molecule is a flexible chain. This kind of structure is known as a random coil in polymer chemistry. Due to the hydrolysed groups contained in its molecule, HPAM has multiple charges distributed along the chain that make it a polyelectrolyte. The paper presents the experimental results concerning the lubricant solutions based on polyacrylamide behaviour when were tested on the four ball machine. It has to be mentioned that this kind of polymer was not used until now in lubrication and the studies concerning its tribological behaviour are at the beginning.