COUNTERFACE TOPOGRAPHICAL EFFECTS ON THE WEAR OF POLYETHERETHERKETONE AND A POLYETHERETHERKETONE CARBON-FIBER COMPOSITE

The unlubricated sliding wear behavior of non-reinforced polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and a PEEK-carbon fiber (PEEK-C(f)) composite was investigated under lightly loaded conditions against mild steel counterfaces. The results showed the occurrence of a relative minimum in wear for the non-reinforced PEEK-mild steel system, resulting from interfacial film formation. In addition, the wear particle morphology changed substantially as the counterface became rougher. For PEEK on abraded mild steel, attempts were made to correlate the wear rate with the average asperity radius model of Hollander and Lancaster. The PEEK-C(f) composite, when compared under similar experimental conditions, also displayed a relative minimum in wear; however, it occurred against rougher counterfaces compared with those corresponding to the non-reinforced PEEK. In this case, the relative wear and transferred wear debris morphology reflected the addition of the carbon fibers.