Dry Slide Wear Behavior of LDPE/EVA Polyblends with Nano-Clay Filler

Abstract

Low volume percentage of filler reinforcement in polymers is generally known to possess high strength and attractive wear resistance in dry sliding conditions. Thus the thermoplastic polymers namely, low density polyethylene (LDPE), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), and nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA with compatibilizer polyblends were prepared by compression molding. Polyblending was carried out in a modular intermeshing co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The dry slide wear behavior of polyblends was studied in this paper. The un-lubricated pin—on-disc wear tests were conducted by varying the sliding distance and load at a constant sliding velocity of 4 m/s. The result indicated that the wear loss increases with increasing load/sliding distance. The polymer and their blends show evidence of different wear behavior at different loads and sliding distances. In particular, the nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA with compatibilizer showed the best wear resistance compared to unfilled polymers. The morphologies of the worn surface of the polyblends were analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy.