Adhesive transfer, mechanisms polymer wear

Polymer wear can take place in various modes, e.g., adhesive, abrasive, transfer, fatigue, and tribo-chemical. In reality, several mechanisms can also operate simultaneously. If impaction is involved, an impact wear can be the chief mechanism. The predominance of any one type of wear can be influenced by the form of polymers, e.g., thermoplastics, elastomers or composites. 

The wear of polymers Is general believed to be caused by one or more of the following mechanisms adhesive transfer, abrasive cutting,... 

They are capable of providing insight into the presence or absences of transfer (wear), the adhesive strength of polymer to metal, amount of transfer, bond scission, mechanical effects such as loading of surfaces together, chemical effects on bonding and surface energetics. The field ion microscope coupled with the atom probe is the ultimate tool for the study of polymer wear because it allows... 

A discussion of the wear of PTFE would not be complete without some reference to PTFE composites. This has been a popular field of study simply because without fillers the wear of PTFE is normally unacceptable. A good filler will reduce transfer wear rates by up to three orders of magnitude. Various mechanisms have been proposed and the subject has been reviewed by the present author (8,9) and others (2,52). The simplest idea is that fillers wear less than the polymer when exposed at the interface. They may also suppress transfer and improve transfer film adhesion, A good deal of effort of high quality has been put into the search for chemically induced adhesion promotion at the transferred film-substrate interface but the evidence is equivocal (53,54). Chemical changes are detected but their precise contribution to the adhesion is uncertain in commercial applications. PTFE is a remarkably stable polymer to chemical attack even at sliding interfaces. 

Wear in a strict sense occurs whenever material is lost from a solid. The mechanism of loss can be abrasion, adhesion, erosion, cavitation, corrosion or fatigue. This loss can occur at the atomic level. At this level analytical tools such as the field ion microscope and the atom probe can be used to study wear loss of polymers. These tools have been used in the authors laboratory for many years to study polymer adhesion and transfer to metal surfaces ... 

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