Impact of sliding load and velocity on tribological response of PTFE filled polyamide 66 and polyamide 6(PA66/PA6) blend thermoplastic composites

The effect of sliding load and velocity on sliding wear behavior of PTFE filled PA66/PA6 blend thermoplastic composites is studied. The blend PA66/PA6 in 80/20 wt. % was selected as the base material and 10 wt. % PTFE as filler for the composites. These thermoplastic composites were produced by melt mix method using extrusion technique followed by injection molding. ASTM G99 method has been adopted to study the sliding wear behavior under the influence of different loads (25, 50, 75 and 100 N) and velocities (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 m/s). The results revealed that the straight chain polymer PTFE proved to be the best tribological agent for sliding wear applications. The tribological response has been studied using wear volume loss and specific wear rate. It is observed that addition of PTFE in to the blend deteriorates the volumetric loss of blend composites. The specific wear rate increases with increase in sliding velocity. The plastic deformation due to higher sliding velocity is most severe on wear volume loss. The sliding velocity is most sensitive tribological response than sliding load. It is observed that solubility parameter of PTFE and formation of polymer transfer film on the steel counter face defines the wear volume loss. The SEM images show that severe plastic deformation and matrix melting were the failure mechanisms.