Wear resistance of the main friction pairs of serial and upgraded plate type vacuum pumps

Abstract

Abstract Plate type vacuum pumps are used in various industries and agriculture due to their high specific efficiency and simple design. The disadvantage of this type of pump is a low inter-repair resource, which is caused by an increase in internal gas flows due to wear of the main friction pair “cast iron-textolite”. To modernize the design of a plate-type vacuum pump, the authors proposed using an anti-friction material PTFE, and as a result, replacing the main friction pair “cast iron-textolite” with friction pairs “cast iron-PTFE” and “textolite - PTFE”. Therefore, this article presents the results of a comparative experiment to determine the wear resistance of friction pairs of a serial and upgraded pump. Analysis of the experiment results showed that the “cast iron-PTFE” and “textolite-PTFE” friction pairs are more wear-resistant when changing the speed of relative movement and pressure in the contact zone than the “cast iron-textolite” friction pair, but they are more demanding to the presence of abrasive in the contact zone. The use of PTFE material is promising as a material for the surfaces of friction pairs of vacuum pumps. However, it requires protection measures and cleaning of the contact zone from wear products of the pump friction pairs themselves and the abrasive coming from the pumped medium.