Increasing performance and lifetime of plastic / metal tribosystems by tribologically induced material conversion processes

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Alois K. Schlarb
• Subject Area: Plastics Engineering ; Engineering Design, Machine Elements, Product Development
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406233144

Plastics are used more and more as a body material in tribological systems. In addition to the polymer matrix, a modern, tribologically optimized, plastic-based body material consists of a reinforcing component and internal lubricants at different length scales. The projects aim is to investigate the potential of a significant increase in the tribological performance of plastic-based hybrid materials without external lubrication in contact with a metallic sliding partner of 100Cr6 by endothermic reactions. The study focusses on the verification of the hypothesis, after which the effect can be used on the one hand to shift the load limits for plastic-based tribological systems by influencing the temperature balance and gaseous and solid reaction products to higher values and on the other hand the tribological usability of such systems to maintain a wide load range.The research project aims to explore the possibilities and limitations of the proposed approach using a combination of experiment, modeling and simulation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants