WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF PLASTIC JOINT AGAINST STEEL BALL UNDER LUBRICATED CONDITION

摘要

Polyoxymethylene (POM), an excellent engineering plastic, exhibits low friction, high wear resistance anc corrosion resistance, and excellent mechanical properties [1, 2]. Therefore, POM is widely used as a mechanical component such as gears, bearing liners and joint [3 - 5]. POM used as ball-joint in an automobile chassis system is typically operated under grease lubricated condition. Even through POM has good sliding properties, friction and wear rate increase when used against steel [6, 7]. Especially, dust particles and water entering through the ball-joint in the automobile chassis system increase the friction and wear of sliding surfaces. The increased friction and wear cause noise and reduce the durability of automotive components. Many research papers regarding the tribological properties of POM have been reported. However, the research work treating the effect of the foreign materials such as dust and water has not been reported sufficiently. In this study, the wear characteristics of plastic joint for inflow of dust particles and water were investigated.