Characterisation of the friction and wear behaviour of textile reinforced polymer composites in contact with diamond-like carbon layers

The tribological behaviour of composites, particularly in contact with steel, is to be estimated as relatively weak. As a promising improvement, the application of modern coatings is considered. In this context, the results of frictional and wear investigations of carbon fibre reinforced epoxy and polyethersulfone as well as glass fibre reinforced polypropylene composites in contact with coated and uncoated steel 100Cr6 are presented. The coating consists of diamond-like carbon (ta-C) layer. A remarkable outcome of the study is the substantial decrease of the specific wear rate of the investigated material pairings by the application of carbon coated metal. The tribological system, which is responsible for the excellent tribological characteristics, is determined by predominantly sliding wear and suppressed abrasive wear.

► Tribo-mechanical properties of FRP against steel are studied experimentally.
► By the use of DLC-coating on steel surface abrasive wear is significantly reduced.
► Wear stability of the tribological pairing CF-EP/DLC-steel is explicitly high.
► The modified tribological system is characterised by the mechanism of sliding wear.
► The study shows the potential of selected tribo-pairings for composite structures.