ABSTRACT
For critical weight applications in automotive and space industries, the need of materials having higher strength-to-weight ratio maintaining the toughness and wear resistance at the same time is preferred. In recent times, polymers are widely used in various tribological components due to the advantage of self-lubrication and also due to the possession of most of the aforementioned desired properties. However, polymers alone cannot satisfy the required properties for tribological applications. Thus, in order to improve the properties and to lower the cost of polymer products, cheaper filler materials are employed. Though these materials are suitable for use, in some applications where production cost is of main concern, these are employed with the polymeric composite to get the desired quality. As these materials are used in applications where sliding motion can be prevalent, wear resistance is considered as the most significant response in determining its quality including friction coefficient. The friction and wear performance of the polymer composites are investigated under different filler contents, normal load and sliding speed with the constant time of 300 s based on L27 orthogonal array. The experimental data is analysed using Taguchi method to find the optimal setting of process parameters for minimum wear and friction. Also, analysis of variance is carried out to obtain the significant factors affecting wear and friction. Confirmation tests are carried out to validate the study.
