Influence of cryogenic treatment on wear behaviour of Poly (tetrafluroethylene) - Teflon Pande K.N.1, Peshwe D.R.2, Kumar Anupama3 1Deptt. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India 2Deptt. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India 3Deptt. of Applied Chemistry, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India Abstract Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is well known engineering material. The PTFE when rubbed or slid against a hard surface, it exhibits a low coefficient of friction but a high rate of wear. This impairs its usefulness as an engineering material. Thus to overcome this situation the cryogenic treatment is carried out using liquid nitrogen in order to improve its wear resistance without sacrificing the low friction performance. Hence, in this paper investigations on the influence of cryo-treatment especially on structural and tribological properties of PTFE are presented. The selected material is treated at sub-zero temperature (−185°C) for stipulated time period (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24hrs) in the cryostat and then tested at ambient temperature. The ‘un-treated’ and ‘cryo-treated’ PTFE samples are evaluated in a comparative manner for the wear property using pin-on-disc machine. The mechanism behind the enhancement in wear performance on cryo-treatment is studied through experiments included Tensile test (UTS), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR). The SEM micrographs of material surface, worn surfaces, wear debris and transfer films advocates the reduction in wear loss. The change in % crystallinity and crystallite size are found to be the most important parameter responsible for improved wear performance. Top Keywords Cryo-treatment, Polytetrafluoroethylene, Wear, Liquid Nitrogen. Top |