Research Article Tribological and Mechanical Behaviors of Polyamide 6/Glass Fiber Composite Filled with Various Solid Lubricants

Copyright © 2013 Duxin Li et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The effects of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), graphite, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), and their com-pounds 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 100N. 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 thematerial became soft.Graphite/UHMWPEcomplex solid lubricantswere 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. 1