FRICTION AND WEAR OF EPOXY FLOORING FILLED BY RECYCLED POLYMERS S.Z.EL-Abden, Abo El-Wafa, W.M. and El-ShANAWANY M.M.

Abstract — Polymers are widely used to coat the flooring material in indoors such as schools, sport halls and yards, hospitals, factories and washrooms. Thus because it has many advantages such as low manufacturing cost, low shrinkage, great chemical corrosion resistance, low creep, high stiffness and good mechanical properties. In the present work, the main objective is to develop flooring epoxy composites by filling by recycled polymers in order to increase wear resistance and friction coefficient of the flooring composites. The friction coefficient and wear of the tested composites will be investigated. It was found that, friction coefficient displayed by the dry sliding of epoxy filled by recycled polypropylene (PP) showed significant increase with increasing PP content. The highest friction coefficient was displayed at 50 wt. % PP. As the load increased, friction coefficient increased. The increase of friction coefficient may be attributed to the PP transfer into the rubber surface. Friction coefficient significantly increased with increasing PS content. Filling epoxy composites by polyvinyl chloride (PVC) caused slight increase in friction coefficient. The values of friction coefficient were relatively lower than that observed for PP and PS. The experimental observation confirmed the strong effect of contaminants as well as the degree of recycling of the tested polymers on the friction coefficient. Epoxy composites filled by PTFE showed slight increase in friction coefficient. Wear of epoxy filled by PP slightly decreased down to minimum at 20 wt. % PP, then increased with increasing PP content. Referring to their friction values those composites can be considered as good flooring materials due to their values of friction coefficient. Addition of PVC into epoxy matrix caused relatively higher wear than that observed for PP and PS. The same trend, observed for the wear behaviou