WEAR MECHANISMS IN PLASTIC PROCESSING

In plastics processing abrasion can occur only by raw material which i s filled with hard particles, i.e. a ''composit''. When in addition se lecting a two phase metal for the processing equipment a very complex tribological situation exists with inhomogenous materials for both, bo dy and counter body. The resulting wear is no longer dependent on the material properties only but also on microgeometry. In addition to the classical micro tooling a ''wash out'' and breakout respectively brea k of carbides may occur. Experiments with modern tungsten carbides and hardmetals confirm the basic considerations. However it is difficult in practical cases to give quantitative estimates of wear.