Effects of graphite particle addition upon the abrasive wear of polymer surfaces

The abrasive wear performance of vinyl ester resins modified with various v olume fractions (5, 10, 15, 20 and 30%) of graphite powder has been measure d. Using a conveyor belt driven testing machine developed locally, it has b een possible to realistically simulate the effect of three-body abrasive we ar upon these graphite modified polymer samples. A comparison of the calcul ated dimensionless wear rates obtained for these surfaces reveals that the effect of the graphite powder depends strongly upon the volume fraction of particles in the resin matrix. It appears that, for intermediate volume fra ctions, the presence of graphite powder in the resin matrix reduces the abr asive wear of the polymer surface. Scanning electron microscopy has been us ed to probe the mechanisms of abrasive wear of the pure resin and graphite modified surfaces. It appears that the embedded graphite particles can act as a lubricant during the abrasion process thus reducing the wear rate. The effect of increasing graphite powder volume fraction upon the abrasive wea r mechanism is discussed. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.