Determination of the Friction Coefficient Magnitude in the Case of Polymer Samples Manufactured by 3D Printing

Abstract

In industrial practice, there are situations where friction processes are developed, one of the components involves in the process being made of polymeric materials. In such situations, it may be necessary to know more information regarding the magnitude of the friction coefficient for polymer–polymer or polymer–metal material pairs. A relatively simple equipment is designed and materialized, starting from the idea of moving a sled on which there is a strip of known material and on which a sample of the material to be tested is pressed with a force of known magnitude. The processing of the results of some experimental tests carried out on this equipment, using specialized software, allows the determination of an empirical mathematical model to highlight the influence exerted by some input factors in the experiment on the size of the friction coefficient. It is thus found that, for the available experimental conditions, the nature of the couple of materials in contact and the thickness of the polymer layer deposited by 3D printing exert the greatest influence on the magnitude of the friction coefficient.