An Improved Tribological Polymer-Coating System for Metal Surfaces Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Aromatic thermosetting polyester (ATSP)- and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-blended composites have been shown to exhibit improved tribological performance with low wear and low friction. In this article, pure ATSP films were coated on aluminum substrates and tested as a potential protective tribological coating. The tribological performance of this coating was tested against steel, using pure sliding sphere-on-disk experiments. A fluoroadditive powder (solid lubricant) was also added to further enhance the ATSP film wear and friction properties. For comparison, a commercially available PTFE-based coating was tested under the same conditions. Results show that the ATSP/fluoroadditive film has comparable coefficient of friction to the commercial coating, but significantly lower wear. Surface analysis techniques were employed to investigate the low-friction and low-wear mechanisms seen with the ATSP/fluoroadditive. Specifically TOF-SIMS depth-profiling showed that there is a high density of fluorine element within the wear track and penetrates well below the surface of the wear track. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

altmetric score

  • 4

author list (cited authors)

  • Zhang, J., Polycarpou, A. A., & Economy, J.

citation count

  • 15

publication date

  • June 2010