Eco-friendly mono-layered PTFE blended polymer composites for dry sliding tribo - systems

Two different composite material systems were designed and studied i.e., basalt fiber/vinyl ester composite (non-layered) and the other is PTFE (10 wt%) blended basalt fiber/vinyl ester composite (layered). The tribo-test was performed for the constant pressure and velocity in a flat-on-flat configuration. The characterization techniques such as FTIR and XRD were performed. Nevertheless, increase in thermal conductivity of 0.187 W/m-k was noticed for layered composites. Tribo-test revealed the average static and dynamic coefficient of friction as 0.19 and 0.12 respectively. To understand the failure mechanism of sliding wear, the morphology of worn out composite surface and counterpart was analyzed using SEM analysis. This layered composite can be a alternative to polyamide which is used in the elevator guide rails.