Regular degradation of rubbers contribute frequent maintenance of conveyer belt system. This paper investigates wear rate and mechanisms of rubber and associated influential parameters based on the information available in literature. Abrasion, fatigue and roll formation are dominate wear mechanisms that are influenced by load, sliding velocity, hardness and friction. Correlations among influential parameters and their effect on rubber wear was established in details. Archad's equation does not work for rubber wear but researchers have proposed equations similar to that. Adhesion wear forms roll in the smooth surface when tear strength of rubber is low. Wear caused by adhesion is abrasion when surface texture is harsh. Hysteresis enhances fatigue wear if the substrate asperities are round or blunt.

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This study investigates the wear, surface roughness, and temperature buildup (TBU) of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), natural rubber (NR), and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) while sliding over abrasives of different sizes with the variation of normal load. Rubber properties such as tensile strength (s) and elongation at break (e) were considered as input parameters. Individual, as well as interacting effects of different parameters, were analyzed in‐depth by using statistical methods. Overall wear of rubber depends not only on the tribological system but also on mechanical properties that contribute different wear mechanisms in addition to abrasion. The abrasive particle size and 1/(se) are the first and second most significant contributing factors, respectively, to all output parameters except the wear rate where the second contributing factor is the applied load and abrasive size is the highest contributor. Larger abrasive particles deepen ploughing marks, which is enhanced by the higher load, and lead to higher surface roughness. The effect of load on TBU is negligible because of the soft nature of the rubber material.

Effect of abrasive particle size on tribological behaviour of different elastomers was investigated experimentally in this study. The size of abrasive particle size was varied from coarse (425 µm) to fine (82 µm). Wear rate and coefficient of friction were calculated and analyzed accordingly followed by the examination of worn surfaces by a scanning electron microscope to unravel the wear mechanism. Experimental results showed that abrasive size had a significant effect on wear and friction behaviour of the elastomers. As the abrasive particle size increased, wear rate and coefficient of friction also increased at different rates and exhibited different wear mechanisms that changed from friction to fatigue and roll formation. Mechanical properties of elastomers such as hardness, tensile strength, tear strength, and elongation at break also contributed to wear and friction. The effect of elongation at break and tensile strength on wear rate is more pronounced at lower abrasive particle size, whereas hardness and tear strength play a pivotal role at the higher abrasive size.