Materials and Design 30 (2009) 26182622

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Materials and Design

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Technical Report

Tribological properties of polymer-based journal bearings

Bekir Sadk nl a,*, Enver Atik b,1, Sinan Kksal b,1
a b

Celal Bayar University, Vocational High School, Department of Machinery, 45400-Turgutlu-Manisa, Turkey Celal Bayar University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 45140-Muradiye-Manisa, Turkey

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Polymer-based materials are widely used due to their good corrosion resistance, self lubrication, and wear resistance properties at low speeds and but are not suitable for lubrication in journal bearings. High performance engineering polymers ensure desired properties for journal bearings and give good tribological results. In this study, tribological behaviors of polymer-based PE, PA, POM, PTFE, and Bakelite bearings have been investigated and evaluated. As a result, the highest wear resistance has occurred in PA and POM bearings. 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Article history: Received 14 August 2008 Accepted 14 November 2008 Available online 28 November 2008

1. Introduction For the past few decades, polymeric materials have been widely used in industry. Some of these materials are thermoplastics (polypropylene (pp), polyethylene (pe), polyoxymethylene (pom), polytetrauoroethylene (ptfe) ve polyamide (pa) etc.). The main advantage of these polymers is high wear and corrosion resistance. These materials (ptfe) are especially used due to their good tribological properties and solid lubricant properties in the food industry and due to their good performance at non-lubricated dry conditions in journal bearing materials. PE has low density, high elasticity, and strength. (Pa), (Pom) and (Ptfe) have good sliding and wear properties at low frictions. Polyoxymethylene (POM) is a material which is generally used in engineering applications and is highly self lubricating. Previous research has generally addressed the lubricating mechanism of POM rubbing against steel under adhesive conditions [18]. Polymeric materials can show very good wear resistance in spite of their modest surface stiffness and the shear strength. Many elastomeric polymers, such as cross-linked rubbers and reinforced ductile polymers are reported as good wear resistant materials [9]. PTFE bearings are frequently used on various machines due to their low friction coefcients in boundary lubrication conditions. The major problems in designing polymer bearings are to decide the optimal dimensions and material type for a long life and for obtaining lower friction and wear losses. Tribological properties of polymer radial bearings are affected by the adhesion on the surfaces of steelpolymer, cohesive characteristics of the polymers used and thermal effects in the friction area at high p.v. (pressure velocity) values [1012]. This p.v. value is not valid for
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 2363124888; fax: +90 2363144566. E-mail addresses: bekir.unlu@bayar.edu.tr (B.S. nl), enver.atik@bayar.edu.tr (E. Atik), sinan.koksal@bayar.edu.tr (S. Kksal). 1 Tel.: +90 2362412144; fax: +90 2362412143. 0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2008.11.018

polymeric materials. Velocity is affected by applied pressure at these materials [13,14]. Even though some ller materials are added to the polymers, their effects on tribological properties are not clearly known. There are different opinions in literature on how llers affect polymer wear. These ller materials decrease wear by modifying the opposite surface and supporting the load. This increasing effect on wear is due to increased adhesion. They also reduce wear of the PTFE composites and they can induce abrasive wear of the counterface [1519]. If polymeric materials are worn at abrasive conditions, wear rate decreases with an increase in grit grade number [20]. Polymer-based materials can be used as journal bearings at low speeds [21]. The objective of this study is to investigate tribological behaviors of the pure PE, PA, POM, PTFE, and bakelite journal bearings at low speeds (v = 0.13 m/s) and to compare the treatment combinations among themselves for tribological properties.

2. Experimental studies 2.1. Preparation of experimental materials In this study, the pure PE, PA, POM, PTFE, and Bakelite materials have been used as journal bearing and SAE 1050 material as shaft. The chemical compositions of the journal materials used in the experiments were given in Table 1. Dimensions of bearing specimens were as follows: inner diameter (d = 10+0.05 mm), width (B = 10 mm), outer diameter (D = 15 mm). The specimens have been worn and friction coefcient have been measured at radial journal bearing wear test rig at dry conditions as described by Atik et al. [22] and nl and Atik [23]. The wear losses have been measured at dry conditions of 20 N loads, 250 rpm (v = 0.130 m/s velocity) and every 30 min for 2.5 h (1177.5 m sliding distance). The specimens were cleaned by acetone. In addition, macro-hardness has been measured using a

B.S. nl et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 26182622 Table 1 Chemical composition of journal material wt(%). Material SAE 1050 C 0.51 Si 0.3 Mn 0.7 P 0.04 S 0.05 Fe Balance

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macro-tester Sadt Hartip-3000 type (Manisa, Turkey). Surface roughness tests have been performed on Mitutoyo-CE surface roughness test rig. The microstructures of wear surfaces in the specimens have been evaluated using the optical microscope (Hund Wetzlar CCD-290) and scanning electron microscope (Jeol JSM-6060). 2.2. Radial journal bearing wear test rig Bearings materials in journal bearings are generally selected from materials which have lower wear strength than the shaft material, thereby lowering the wearing of the shaft signicantly. To this end, journal bearing wear test apparatus is designed to examine the wearing of bearing materials. In this study, a special bearing wear test apparatus has been designed to examine the wearing behavior of bearing material and the shaft together. Therefore, it is possible to investigate different bearing and shaft materials and the effects of heat treatments on these materials. Such a mechanism provides wear of bearings rather than using standard methods as this is more appropriate direct [22]. The system is formed by a weight applied by a rigid bar, a steel bar connected to the bearing from a distance and a comparator. Friction coefcient is determined from the friction force formed along the rotating direction of the bearing and from the movement of the steel bar connected to the bearing [23]. Radial wear test rig is illustrated in Fig. 1. Samples of polymer-based journal bearing are illustrated in Fig. 2. In the experiments under lubricated conditions, very little movement was taken place for high comparators spring coefcient and low friction. Therefore, a tensile spring of k = 0.004 N/mm has been connected on the opposite side of to the comparator. The movements formed by the effect of the friction force have been measured by this method. 3. Results and discussion Hardness values were shown in Table 2. Surface roughness values before and after wear were shown in Table 3. After wear tests, the roughness values of PE and PA bearings increased because PE and PA had soft structure. However roughness values of POM, PTFE and Bakelite bearings decreased due to their hard structure. Friction coefcient, bearing temperature, and bearing wear rate were shown in Figs. 35. Friction coefcients in journal bearings ranged from 0.15 to 0.25 and bearing temperatures were between 30 and 35 C. Friction coefcient and bearing temperature did not signicantly change with time. At the beginning of test, friction

Fig. 2. Samples of polymer bearing: (I) PE, (II) PA, (III) POM, (IV) PTFE, and (V) bakelite.

Table 2 Hardness of bearing materials. Material Hardness (Share-D) PE 30 PA 32 POM 35 PTFE 51 Bakelite 40

Table 3 Roughness of bearing materials. Roughness (lm) Before wear After wear PE 2.63 2.85 PA 1.22 1.81 POM 3.51 2.85 PTFE 1.59 2.26 Bakelite 1.95 1.63

0.4

Friction Coefficient ( )

PE PA POM

PTFE Bakelite

0.3

0.2

0.1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Time (h)
Fig. 3. The friction coefcient-time variation polymer bearings.

coefcient was high and bearing temperature was low, but friction coefcient decreased and bearing temperature increase towards the end of the tests. The highest wear rate has occurred in pure bakelite bearing whereas the lowest bearing wear rate has occurred in POM bearing. Bearing wear rate of pure PE was 6.43 106 [mm3/Nm], PA was 4.3 106 [mm3/Nm], POM was 4.12 106 [mm3/Nm], PTFE was 7.2 106 [mm3/Nm], and

4 5 7 6 8

Fig. 1. Radial journal bearing wear test rig: 1. comparator, 2. rigid bar, 3. load contact point (rolling bearing), 4. journal sample, 5. journal bearing samples, 6. plate bar, 7. motor, 8. loads.

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B.S. nl et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 26182622

PE PA POM

PTFE Bakelite

Wear Rate (Wr)x10 -6 [mm 3/Nm]

40

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 PE PA POM PTFE Bakelite

Temperature (C)

35

30

Bearing Materials
Fig. 5. The compare of wear rate of bearing materials.

25 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Time (h)
Fig. 4. The temperature-time variation polymer bearings.

Bakelite was 7.47 106 [mm3/Nm]. So, the highest wear resistance occurred in PA and POM bearings and wear resistance increased in these materials owing to superior tribological properties. Similarly; nal et al. determined that wear rate of 8.5 104 [mm3/Nm] in POM material and 9.58 105 [mm3/ Nm] in PA material. Briscoe [17] reported that wear of PA and

Fig. 6. Microstructure of wear surface (100): (a) PE, (b) PA, (c) POM, (d) PTFE, and (e) bakelite.

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POM materials polymers was better than that of other polymers studied. Hu [6] has determined friction coefcient 0.07 and wear rate 4.3 103 [mm3/Nm] at 200 N loads, 0.84 m/s speed and 10 min on block-on-ring in the presence of air in his experiments with PTFE bearings. Blanchet et al. [19] have determined friction coefcient of 0.06, wear loss of 40 mm3 at 50 % irradiated and friction coefcient of 0.15, wear loss at 100% irradiated. They concluded that the use of novel PTFE bearing surfaces containing regions of irradiated and un-irradiated PTFE, patterned through distributed masking of incident electrons at low speeds. Such composite surfaces can exhibit low sliding friction and may provide wear resistance, for sliding distances of several kilometers, similar to that of completely irradiated PTFE or lled PTFE composites. In this study, friction coefcients obtained were similar to those of other studies. However, no direct comparison for the wear loss could be established between our results and results in the literature because of different pressures, speeds, and sliding distance used. Less adhesive wear tracks have occurred for PA and POM bearings due to better wear resistance property and solid lubrication property (Figs. 6 and 7bd) as compared to other bearings (Figs.

6 and 7a). Clear adhesive wear tracks have occurred for PE, PTFE, and Bakelite bearings. Hu [6], Davim and Marques [7], Tevrz [1012], Bahadur and Tabor [15], Lancester et al. [16], Briscoe [17], Gong et al. [18], Blanchet et al. [19], Rajesh and Bijwe [24], and Rico et al. [25] have investigated tribological properties of polymer-based various PE, PA, PEEK and PTFE materials. In these studies, they reported that the wear rate increased with increasing applied load and sliding distance, and wear and hardness properties improved with particle reinforcement. They observed that less abrasive and adhesive wear tracks in particle reinforced composites. Rajesh and Bijwe [24], and Rico et al. [25] reported that some llers materials could effectively increase the wear life of polymer-based PA and PTFE composites. Particle lled composites showed much smoother surfaces than the same composites lled by graphite. In our study, we obtained similar wear tracks in polymer bearings. 4. Conclusions The highest wear rate has occurred in pure Bakelite bearing whereas the lowest bearing wear rate has occurred in POM bearing. So, the highest wear resistance has occurred in PA and POM

Fig. 7. SEM microstructure of wear surface: (a) PE, (b) PA, (c) POM, (d) PTFE, and (e) bakelite.

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bearings. Wear resistance increased because of better tribological properties of these materials. Friction coefcients were between 0.15 and 0.25 and bearing temperatures varied from 30 to 35 C. When wear surfaces of samples were examined by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, less adhesive wear tracks have occurred for PA and POM bearings. Clear adhesive wear tracks have occurred for PE, PTFE, and Bakelite bearings. Acknowledgement I would like to thank Ersel OBUZ for editing the language of the manuscript. References
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