Tribological characteristics of polymer materials used for slide bearings

Abstract

The automotive industry uses a variety of technologies and construction materials in production process. Knowledge of the characteristics of tribological material pairs cooperating with each other is useful for their selection from the safety point of view sliding pairs, in means of transport, and other machines. The aim of the contribution is the analysis of the characteristics of tribological ball-on-disc wear of polymeric materials used as sliding bearings. Tribological tests were carried out under dry friction for a polymer-metal pair of three types of materials. Among all three groups of the tested materials statistically significant differences (p < 0.05 in Student's t-test) in wear were observed. The wear rate and friction coefficient of the sample were tested, and the signs of wear were submitted to SEM observations.