Abstract

In the present work, the roles of increased loading (0-20 wt.%) synthetic themographite particles
and diminution loading of hBN (micro-sized) (20-0 wt%) on the tribological behavior of short
glass ber (GF) lled PEK were investigated. Tribological tests were carried out on pin on disc
tribometer at room temperature in extremely wide pressure and sliding velocity ranges, i.e. from
22 MPa to 28 MPa and then keeping pressure fixed i.e. 28 MPa velocity varied from 2 m/s upto
advent of failure , respectively. Under all conditions studied, the increased thermographite (upto
15 wt%) remarkably reduce the friction coefcients and wear rate. With respect to the wear rates,
however, the roles of the thermographite show a strong dependence on the sliding conditions.
During evaluation for investigating PVlimit values it was found that the composite with 15%
thermographite (100.8 MPa-m/s) was decisively superior to all the composites . That composite
could sustain higher speed (3.60 m/s ) while all other failed under a velocity of 3.25 m/s. Under
high pv conditions, the abrasiveness exerted by possible incapability of film transfer seems to
accelerate GF destructions. The protection of GF/matrix interface by the fortified themographite
is supposed to be the main reason for the enhancement of the wear resistance upto a particular
extent i.e. 15 wt% and on going further increased thermographite proportion leads to detoriation
in tribological properties. It was concluded that both hBN and thermographite show synergistic
effect which could be responsible for transferring less beneficial film under severe operating
conditions. SEM and EDAX studies were conducted to understand wear mechanisms.