Wear Behavior of Polyaryletherketones Under Multi-directional Sliding and Fretting Conditions

The polyaryletherketone (PAEK) family of thermoplastics is increasingly used in engineering applications that require outstanding tribological properties. Considerable attention has thus been paid to their wear behavior in a number of environments. However, little focus has been given to PAEK response to fretting conditions. Fretting wear results from the repeated slip of mutually loaded contacts. In this study, a custom built multi-axis tribometer has been shown to replicate fretting of PAEK in a pin-on-flat configuration. The experimentation and analysis has provided new insights into this phenomenon.