B.N. Ravi Kumar

Dry Slide Wear Behavior of LDPE/EVA Polyblends with Nano-Clay Filler

Low volume percentage of filler reinforcement in polymers is generally known to possess high strength and attractive wear resistance in dry sliding conditions. Thus the thermoplastic polymers namely, low density polyethylene (LDPE), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), and nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA with compatibilizer polyblends were prepared by compression molding. Polyblending was carried out in a modular intermeshing co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The dry slide wear behavior of polyblends was studied in this paper. The un-lubricated pin—on-disc wear tests were conducted by varying the sliding distance and load at a constant sliding velocity of 4 m/s. The result indicated that the wear loss increases with increasing load/sliding distance. The polymer and their blends show evidence of different wear behavior at different loads and sliding distances. In particular, the nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA with compatibilizer showed the best wear resistance compared to unfilled polymers. The morphologies of the worn surface of the polyblends were analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy.

Effect of Abrasives on Three-Body Abrasive Wear Behaviour of Particulate-Filled Polyamide66/Polypropylene Nanocomposites

Polyamide66/polypropylene (PA66/PP) blend, graphite (Gr)-filled PA66/PP composite and nanoclay (NC)-filled PA66/PP nanocomposites were prepared by twin screw extrusion and injection molding. Three-body abrasive wear behaviour of the injection moulded composites was carried out using a rubber wheel abrasion wear tester. In this study, angular silica sand and quartz particles of size ranging from 200 to 250 μm were used as dry and loose abrasives. The tests were carried out for 150, 300, 450 and 600 m abrading distances at a constant load of 36 N. It was observed that inclusion of particulate fillers in PA66/PP have significant influence on wear under varied abrading distances for different abrasive particles. Further, it was found that NC-filled PA66/PP nanocomposite exhibited lower wear rate compared to Gr filled ones for different abrasive particles. In addition, the worn surfaces of the samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the morphology was also discussed.

Two-body Abrasive Wear Behavior of Nano-clay Filled LDPE/EVA Composites

The present article summarizes an experimental study on two-body abrasive wear behavior of nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA composites with and without compatibilizer. Poly (ethylene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) was used as the compatibilizer. Nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA composites with and without compatibilizer were melt-mixed using Brabender Co-Twin extruder followed by compression molding. Two-body abrasive wear studies were carried out using a Pin-on-Disc machine under multi-pass condition against the waterproof silicon carbide (SiC) abrasive papers in dry conditions. The effect of grit size, load and different abrading distance on the abrasive wear behavior was reported. The results indicate that the nano-clay filled LDPE/EVA with compatibilizer composite exhibits superior abrasion resistance. In addition, the worn surfaces of the samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy and the morphology was also discussed.