Friction and wear behavior of polyetherimide composites in various wear modes

A high performance engineering polymer, polyetherimide (PEI) and its two co mposites, one containing only short glass fibers (GF) 20% and the other, co mmercially established bearing material containing 25% GF and three solid l ubricants were selected for studying the wear behavior in four types of wea r modes. These included, adhesive (continuous sliding against metal); abras ive (abrading in single pass and multi pass against silicon carbide abrasiv e paper), and three-body abrasion (abrading against rubber wheel), fretting , and erosive wear modes. A bearing grade material proved to be extremely g ood in adhesive and fretting wear modes. The same composite, however, prove d very poor in abrasive and erosive wear modes. Neat polymer performed best in these two modes. Thus, performance rankings of three materials in adhes ive and fretting wear modes were identical while for abrasive and erosive w ear modes, exactly the reverse trend was observed. SEM studies proved helpf ul in understanding the wear mechanism. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Scie nce B.V.