Analysis of abrasive wear behavior of PTFE composite using Taguchi’s technique

Polymeric composites are widely used for structural, aerospace, and automobile sectors due to their good combination of high specific strength and specific modulus. These two main characteristics make these materials attractive, compared to conventional materials like metal or alloy ones. Some of their typical benefits include easy processing, corrosion resistance, low friction, and damping of noise and vibrations. Wear behavior of Polytetrafluoroethylenes (PTFE) and its composites including glass-filled composites and carbon-filled composites are investigated using a pin-on-disc configuration. A plan of experiments in terms of Taguchi technique is carried out to acquire data in controlled way. An orthogonal array (L9) and the analysis of variance are employed to investigate the influence of process parameters on the wear of these composites. Volume loss increased with abrasive size, load, and distance. Furthermore, specific wear rate decreased with increasing grit size, load, sliding distance, whereas, slightly with compressive strength. Optimal process parameters, which minimize the volume loss, were the factor combinations of L1, G3, D1, and C3. Confirmation experiments were conducted to verify the optimal testing parameters. It was found that in terms of volume loss, there was a good agreement between the estimated and the experimental value of S/N ratio with an error of 1.604%. Moreover, abrasive size, load, and sliding distance exerted a great effect on the specific wear rate, at 51.14, 27.77, and 14.70%, respectively