Investigation of wear behavior for novel polyamide 66 composites under dry sliding conditions

Abstract

Polyamide 66 has been recently used in mechanical applications especially in gears manufacturing due to their low weight, low cost, and good tribological characteristics. In particular, great attention must be considered on the specific wear rate for polyamide 66 and their composites under dry sliding conditions. The goal of this paper is to study the effect of wear parameters; applied load, sliding distance and thermal effects on specific wear rate for neat polyamide 66 and their composites after adding 1% wt CNT or 30% wt (CF) under dry sliding conditions as well as, study the effect of the reinforcement materials on the hardness and their relationship to specific wear rate. The experimental result shows that the increase in wear parameters leads to increase the specific wear rate. However, with the addition of 1% wt CNT or 30% wt (CF) increasing the wear resistance by 130% and 200% under (30N) applied load and by 107% and 144% under (4000m) sliding distance respectively. Moreover, significant increase in hardness explained the enhancement in wear resistance. A scanning electron microscopy was done for the harmed specimen surfaces and the images appeared that the addition of reinforcement materials gives smooth surfaces with little harm unlike neat polyamide 66.