Polymer composites based on aromatic polyamide and fillers of spherical and layered structure for friction units of high-performance equipment

Abstract

Without the employment of new equipment, with units functioning at high levels of weights, sliding speeds and temperatures, the current growth of the sector is all but impossible. High levels of labour intensity have a detrimental impact on the dependability and durability of the product. Moving joints, which comprise friction units, frequently fail at the same time. It is vital to increase their dependability and durability. This can be accomplished by substituting more recent materials with higher-quality qualities for the friction pair materials. To create such materials, the researchers created an aromatic polyamide polymer that was filled with silicon- (silica gel, bentonite) and carbon-containing (technical carbon, graphite) components. It was determined that depending on their nature, structure and content in the polymer matrix, the addition of these fillers enables the reduction of the coefficient of friction and wear of the produced polymer composites by 1.5–2.5 and 20–40 times, respectively, during frictional interaction with steel. It was found that 10–15% by weight of the examined fillers in aromatic polyamide is the ideal concentration. It has been proven that polymer composites filled with layered materials (bentonite, graphite) perform better in terms of tribological qualities when in contact with steel than those filled with spherical elements (technical carbon, silica gel). The improvement of the tribological properties of the developed polymer composites in comparison to the original polymer was determined based on the microphotographs of steel surfaces and the study of their morphological (roughness) and physical (microhardness) properties. It was determined that the change in the friction nature was due to the creation of an antifriction coating on the metal friction surface from the products of tribochemical reactions occurring during friction.