Sliding wear of epoxy compounds against different counterparts under dry and aqueous conditions

This paper deals with the effect of counterpart material (hardened steel, austenitic steel, and Al2O3), internal lubricant (PTFE, graphite, MoS2, and SnS2), and fibre reinforcement (glass and carbon fibres) on the wear of epoxy-based composites. Under dry conditions the high chromium austenitic steel led to a lower composite wear than the bearing steel. Alumina counterparts produced results similar to the austenitic steel. In a dry environment, only PTFE led to a remarkable wear reduction, while all other fillers had no significant effect regardless of the counterpart material. For wet conditions the Al2O3 ceramic seems to be most promising. The carbon fibre reinforced version had the best wear performance under aqueous conditions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.