Influence of the Shaping on Tribological Properties of PEEK‐Coated U‐Shaped Metal‐Profiles

Abstract

Metal/fiber reinforced composite bearings consisting of a metallic substrate with a tribologically optimized polymer coating are produced with an additional layer of porous sintered bronze between polymer and metal to assure a high joint quality. With the aim to reduce cost and manufacturing complexity a thermal impact welding process was modified and applied to join a tribologically optimized PEEK to metallic substrates without the sintered bronze layer. [1] In the previous works, the thermal impact welding process was first optimized with steel substrates by varying process parameters such as substrate pretreatment, preheating temperature and cooling rate. The second step was to optimize the same process for aluminum substrates. With both substrate materials the optimized thermal impact welding process leads to an increase of tensile shear strength compared to the reference sample, PEEK-coated steel substrate with an additional sintered bronze layer. To prove the applicability of the process for bearings flat samples were produced by the new process and characterized tribologically. The results achieved with a plate on ring configuration showed that excellent wear and friction properties also can be achieved without the sintered bronze layer. [1] In this work, the PEEK-coated specimen are shaped to U-half-shells before testing them tribologically. The chosen shape leads to a tribological configuration that is similar to the situation in bearings and makes it possible to analyze the influence of the shaping on the properties. To gain more information on the state of the material after shaping the surfaces of sample have been analyzed. Numerical simulations have been performed to determine the stresses strains in the coating during shaping.