'University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Wood Science and Technology'
Abstract
Seminal characteristics such as good corrosion resistance, self-lubrication ability and acceptable wear resistance have made polymer based materials to become popular in a wide and diverse range of tribological
applications. Despite numerous applications and decades of research in polymer tribology, a considerable number of questions remain unsolved both regarding fundamental understanding and engineering design issues. One of the reasons is the vast number of different polymers and polymer based composites that are in use, but also the diversity in applications and the difficulties to observe the governing tribomechanisms.
Material and component producers are often the only owners of composition and basic material characteristics. Thus, designers and application engineers are obviously forced to rely on catalogue information and scattered literature data. For that reason prior to application of a chosen material/component functional and tribological tests with scale models or laboratory set-ups are performed to obtain better confidence in the proposed design solutions. Each time again the definition of an adequate test program is of major concern. The present paper discusses some challenges related to the use and testing of polymer based tribocomponents such as bearings, sliders, gears, rollers, etc. Attention is not only given to basic influencing parameters such as contact load, sliding/rolling velocity, environmental conditions, mating surface conditions, etc. Also experimental strategies and advanced measuring techniques that allow to follow the dynamic nature of transfer film formation and wear are considered. Finally, actual trends in reinforcements (e.g. natural fibres) and lubricant additives (nanoparticles) are discussed together with opportunities for
improved tribobehaviour
