Investigation Of Friction And Wear Behavior Of POM Filled With Waste PTFE

In recent years, numerous waste materials result from manufacturing operations, service industries and households. Problems, however, are experienced due to the insufficient capacity of landfills and limited alternatives for recycling. Waste utilization is an attractive alternative to disposal in that disposal cost and potential pollution problems are reduce or even eliminated along with the achievement of resource conservation. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is currently finding increasing utility in tribological field due to its unique properties such as high chemical resistivity, low coefficient of friction and high temperature stability. Consequently, waste PTFE accounts for an increase fraction of municipal solid waste around the world. Although the waste PTFE is no noxious, it has great difficulty in natural decomposition leading to its environmental and social impacts. In this work, a mechanical recycling method was selected, waste PTFE mechanically cut into powders as a filler material for reducing friction. The waste PTFE filling polyformaldehyde (POM) composites were prepared. This work is helpful for understanding of the friction and wear behavior of POM-WPTFE composites against steel.Polyformaldehyde (POM) composites filled with different proportions of waste PTFE were prepared by hot compression molding. The friction and wear tests were carried out in a reciprocating tribometer. These composites were tested against a 45 carbon steel track, at room temperature in ambient atmosphere (60±5)%RH. The conditions were a contact pressure of 5.5 MPa, and a reciprocating frequency of 1 Hz. Results show that a POM-20% WPTFE composite exhibited a relatively low coefficient of friction and high wear resistance amongst the POM materials.Adding 5 wt.% graphite into POM-20% WPTFE composite, the effect of graphite on the POM composite was studied. It is found that the POM composite with graphite exhibited a low coefficient of friction and wear rate compared to POM composite without graphite.