Abstract
The effects of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), graphite, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), and their compounds on mechanical and tribological properties of glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide 6 (PA6/GF) were studied. The polymeric materials were blended using twin-screw extruder and subsequently injection molded for test samples. Mechanical properties were investigated in terms of hardness, tensile strength, and impact strength. Friction and wear experiments were run under ambient conditions at a rotating speed of 200 rpm and load of 100 N. The morphologies of the worn surfaces were also observed with scanning electron microscope. The results showed that graphite could increase the tensile strength of PA6/GF-15 composite, but the material became soft. Graphite/UHMWPE complex solid lubricants were effective in increasing the already high impact strength of PA6/GF-15 composite. 5% PTFE gave the maximum reduction in the coefficient of friction. However, PTFE/UHMWPE complex solid lubricants were the best choice for improving both friction and wear behaviors due to the lower friction coefficient and mass wear rate. Moreover, the worn surface of PA6 composites revealed that adhesive wear, abrasive wear, and fatigue wear occurred in this study.
Highlights
In recent years, polymer composites have been widely used for tribological applications to replace traditional metallic materials, which made the studies of friction and wear behaviors of these materials a commercial necessity [1, 2]
The effects of single PTFE, graphite, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), and their complex solid lubricants on the mechanical properties were studied on polyamide 6 (PA6)/glass fiber (GF)-15 composite
When PTFE and UHMWPE were added to PA6/GF-15 composite individually, there was practically no effect on the hardness of the composites
Summary
Polymer composites have been widely used for tribological applications to replace traditional metallic materials, which made the studies of friction and wear behaviors of these materials a commercial necessity [1, 2]. Further improvements are still required to meet more demanding applications due to some drawbacks of pure PA6 as a kind of sliding materials, such as high coefficient of friction (COF) under dry sliding and high wear rate and instability at high load conditions, which limit its applications in a wet and low-temperature environment [3,4,5] Depending on their application areas, reinforcement materials such as glass and carbon, in the form of fibers, have been used to enhance the mechanical properties of polymers and reduce cost when compared to the materials of similar strength [6, 7]. The present work would focus on the topic to clarify the effects of single and complex solid lubricants on the mechanical and tribological behaviors of PA6/GF composites
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