Friction and Wear Mechanism between Rubber and Nickel for Water Lubricated Bearings

Abstract

Water lubricated rubber bearing is one of the most appropriate bearings widely used in submerged pump for drainage. The water lubricated rubber bearings sometimes worked in absent-water conditions especially at the machine start or brake. The friction and wear characteristics of the water lubricated rubber/Nickel coating pair were tested under dry, wet and water lubrication conditions respectively on the high-speed ring-block friction and wear testing machine. The effect of load and speed on the friction coefficient was examined in the experiment. The friction and wear mechanism of the rubber/Nickel coating pair under different conditions was analyzed with the help of SEM in the paper. The results show that the adhesive wear mainly occurs under dry condition, the grain abrasion occurs under wet condition and boundary lubrication occurs under water lubrication.