Influence of Carbon Fabric on Fretting Wear Performance of Polyetherimide Composite

A carbon fabric composite of Polyetherimide (PEI) was fabricated and studied for fretting wear behavior along with neat PEI. The operating parameters were load, temperature, amplitude and frequency of fretting. It was observed that carbon fabric proved to be significantly beneficial for reducing friction and wear of PEI. The friction coefficient of PEI was quite high and independent of operating parameters. For the carbon fabric composites (CFC) it reduced from 0.3 to 0.18 with an increase in load. On the other hand it showed marginal increase (0.18 to 0.28) with increase in temperature from 25°C to 200°C. The wear rate of the composite, CFC showed little variation with increase in load and temperature. Amplitude and frequency also proved to be important influencing parameters. Microscopic studies proved useful for understanding wear mechanism.