The Effect of Fibre Reinforcement and Solid Lubricants on Abrasive Wear Behavior of Polyetheretherketone Composites

Abstract

The tribo performance evaluations were carried out for various composites of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) filled with short glass, carbon fibre, and solid lubricants in abrasive wear situation. Abrasive wear studies were carried out under single pass condition against SiC abrasive paper by using pin-on-disc machine. The influence of variables such as sliding distance, load and abrasive grit size has been investigated. It was observed that fibre reinforcement deteriorated the abrasive wear resistance of neat PEEK matrix. Combination of fibre and particulate filler is more detrimental to abrasive wear performance. Efforts were made to correlate the abrasive wear performance with the appropriate mechanical properties. Ratner-Lancaster plot showed linear correlation. SEM was used to analyse the worn surfaces of the samples.