Relative Wear

[USMechE6]

Hi All,

I'm looking to try to predict the wear rate of steel on Delrin TM. I know that Delrin TM will wear at a rate orders of magnitude faster than the steel, but that the steel will still wear as well. Does anyone know of anyway to estimate this? I've looked at the Archard equation, but it only predicts the wear of the 'wear' material based on just its hardness.

As steel obviously is not the primary wear surface in this case, I can't find any values in the literature for how it would wear. I tried contacting DuPont but as expected there really isn't any studies done on this. Is there theory that accounts for the hardness of both materials so that you don't need the K value between them (for the harder material wearing), or is the simple answer just to go ahead and determine it experimentally? I thought a formula might look something where the ratio of the hardnesses are flipped for which material you're trying to calculate the volumetric wear for. Some theory to validate would be great to have for design purposes.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ccaarrppeenntteerr]

Maybe you can apply Archard equation for both materials separately using two different wear coefficients. Unfortunately, in this case you will have to measure two wear coefficients experimentally. To simulate wear in this way (but applying Archard equation locally), you can use Tribology Simulator.

 

[racookpe1978]

How clean will you be able to keep the delron? Particles of steel or dirt and grit embedded into it will cause scarring and erosion of the rest of the steel.