EFFECT OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS AND FIBER DIAMETER ON THE ABRASIVE WEAR OF SHORT FIBER REINFORCED RUBBER COMPOSITES

Abstract

Wear properties of short fiber reinforced chloroprene rubber (SFRR) composites were examined when the SFRR were rubbed against four abrasive papers that had different surface roughness. The rubbing experiments were conducted in the longitudinal (L), transverse (T) and normal (N) directions of the oriented fibers to study the effect of fiber orientations on the wear rate, and the effect of roughness of the mating abrasive paper. The effects of diameters and materials of the reinforced fiber on the wear were also examined. When rubbed against fine abrasive papers, the wear rates of the SFRR tended to be much lower than those of the unreinforced rubber (CR). When rubbed against coarse abrasive papers, the difference in the wear rates between the SFRR and the CR became small, because the wear rates of the SFRR increased by reason of easy cutting or easy detachment of the reinforced fibers in the L and T directions of the SFRR. The transfer of rubber to the fine abrasive paper was observed in the experiments of the SFRR reinforced by large fibers in diameter. Then the wear rate was low and the frictional coefficient was high. For these facts, the surface roughness dependence on the wear rates of the SFRR was larger than those of the CR. Minimum frictional coefficient was observed when rubbed against abrasive paper having medium surface roughness. The plowing term of the friction became large with increasing the mating surface roughness, and the adhesion term of the friction also became large with decreasing the mating surface roughness.