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Keywords
Plastics, Friction, Mechanical engineering, Wear
Abstract
Engineering plastics having good mechanical properties are at present frequently used as materials for various machine elements. In this research, experimental investigations have been carried out regarding tribological factors such as friction and wear for five kinds of fundamental engineering plastics: non-reinforced polycarbonate, polyphenylene oxide, polyamide, polyacetal, and polybutylene terephthalate. It is clarified that the tribological properties, especially the wear properties of the engineering plastics are influenced by the friction conditions and heat transfer characteristics on contact surfaces. However, no clear effects of mechanical strength such as tensile strength or hardness are seen. Thus, the fundamental wear properties of engineering plastics are strongly influenced not only by their own thermal characteristics but also by those of contact surfaces.
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Introduction
Engineering plastics are thermoplastics. Their strength per unit weight, that is their specific strength, is greater than the usual metallic materials, and their material cost is relatively low. For these reasons, engineering plastics have recently replaced metallic materials in many different machine parts. In spite of this situation, only a few studies dealing with the friction and wear of engineering plastics have been reported (Rymuza, 1991; Van De Velde and De Baets, 1997; Zsidal et al., 2002). Therefore, in this research, experiments were conducted on the fundamental friction and wear characteristics of five kinds of engineering plastics among many engineering plastics of practical application were investigated. A pin-on-flat wear-testing machine with reciprocating friction was used in experiments. Each of the specimen-engineering plastics used here was of non-reinforced material.
Specimen engineering plastics
The five specimen-engineering plastics used are listed in Table I, and are generally known as the five fundamental engineering plastics.
Polycarbonate (PC) is a transparent amorphous plastic. Oxygen and benzene ring are introduced into a long carbon chain of polymers. This material is not for anti-wear use. PC is frequently applied to the door handles of automobiles or compact discs (CD).
Polyphenylene oxide (PPO) is also an amorphous plastic. As with PC, oxygen and benzene ring are introduced into a long carbon chain. PPO has a high viscosity in its...