Studies on tribological behavior of PEEK and PE-UHMW

Abstract

The tribological properties of Poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) and Ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene (PE-UHMW) were studied in a 2-body sliding system using a ball on plate (BOP) tribometer. The surface's roughness (Ra) was changed for both PEEK and PE-UHMW to observe the influence of Ra on wear response. During the experiments, coefficient of friction (COF) was measured and correlated with the wear mechanisms. The frictional behavior of PEEK seems to develop in 3 stages, whereas PE-UHMW seem to have a stable frictional behavior throughout the entire testing period. Furthermore, changing the surface's roughness allowed to observe that PEEK shifts its wear rate behavior when roughness is reversed. The wear rate seem to decrease with the increase of testing time for the samples with low Ra values whereas for high Ra values the samples registered an increase in wear rate with the increase of testing time. In case of PEUHMW the change in roughness did not change the trend of the wear rate.