This article focuses on friction and wear as they relate to polymeric materials, covering friction and wear applications for polymeric materials. The discussion covers the causes and mechanisms of friction, wear, and lubrication; different test methods developed to simulate friction and wear mechanisms; and friction and wear test data used for polymeric materials.

This chapter describes the processes, applications, and limitations of forming and shaping various materials. It discusses bulk forming, hot working, cold working, sheet forming, and polymer and powder processing.

This chapter describes the properties and attributes of various classes of metalworking lubricants, including mineral oils; natural oils, fats, derivatives, and soaps; synthetic fluids (olefins, esters, polyglycols, ionic liquids); compounded lubricants (oils, greases, fats); aqueous lubricants (emulsions, synthetics, solutions); and a wide range of coatings and carriers. It also discusses solid-film lubricants (oxide films, polymer films, layer-lattice compounds) and environmental and safety concerns.

This chapter covers the friction and wear behaviors of plastics and elastomers. It begins by describing the molecular differences between the two types of polymers and their typical uses. It then discusses the important attributes of engineering plastics and their suitability for applications involving friction, erosion, and adhesive and abrasive wear. It also discusses the tribology of elastomers and rubber along with their basic differences and the conditions under which they produce Schallamach waves. It includes information on polymer composites as well.

The most common methods for preparing polymeric composites for microscopic analysis can be used for most fiber-reinforced composite materials. There are, however, a few composite materials that require special preparation techniques. This chapter discusses the processes involved in the preparation of titanium honeycomb composites, boron fiber composites, titanium/polymeric composite hybrids, and uncured prepreg materials.

This article discusses the chemical susceptibility of a polymeric material. The discussion covers significant absorption and transportation of an environmental reagent by the polymer; the chemical susceptibility of additives; and thermal degradation, thermal oxidative degradation, photo-oxidative degradation, environmental corrosion, and chemical corrosion of polymers. It also includes some of the techniques used to detect changes in structure during polymer exposure to hostile environments. In addition, the article describes the effects of environment on polymer performance, namely plasticization, solvation, swelling, environmental stress cracking, polymer degradation, surface embrittlement, and temperature effects.

This chapter provides a practical overview of the tools and techniques used to assess the tribological aspects of metal forming processes. It describes test methods that have been developed to evaluate bulk deformation and sheet metal forming processes along with lubricant rheology, friction forces, and stress and strain distributions. It explains how to measure temperature between tooling and workpiece surfaces as well as surface topography and composition, film thickness, and wear. It also discusses the benefits of reduced-scale and simulation testing and the transfer of results from one process to another.

This chapter reviews the basic theory of lubrication in the context of metal forming applications. It discusses the rheological properties of fluids and their effect on fluid-film thickness at pressures, temperatures, and loading conditions typical of metal working processes. It describes the three lubrication regimes (boundary, mixed, and hydrodynamic) of a Stribeck curve and the forces that maintain surface separation. It also discusses mixed, elastohydrodynamic, plastohydrodynamic, and solid or semi-solid lubrication, the effects of starvation and frictional instabilities, and the role of elastic deflection and ultrasonic vibration.

This article provides details on several of the classifications of polymer wear mechanisms, using wear data and micrographs from published works. The primary goals are to present the mechanisms of polymer wear and to quantify wear in terms of wear rate. The discussion begins by providing information on the processes involved in interfacial and cohesive wear. This is followed by sections describing the wear process and applications of elastomers, thermosets, glassy thermoplastics, and semicrystalline thermoplastics. The effects of environmental and lubricant on the wear failures of polymers are then discussed. The article further includes a case study describing the tribological performance of nylon. It ends by presenting some examples of wear failures of plastics.

This chapter covers the tribological properties of different types of oil, greases, solid lubricants, and metalworking and traction fluids. It explains how lubricants are made, how they work, and how they are applied and tested. It also discusses the fundamentals of lubrication and friction control, the relationship between viscosity and breakaway friction, and the factors that affect load-carrying capacity and service life.

This chapter discusses the types of failures that can occur in sheet metal forming tools and explains how to mitigate their effects. It describes the factors that influence galling and wear and the benefits of special treatments and coatings. It provides information on through hardening, case (surface) hardening, and nitriding as well as hard chrome plating, vapor deposition, and thermal diffusion coating. It explains how to measure wear resistance using various tests and provides guidelines for selecting tool materials, treatments, and coatings.

This chapter reviews the types of friction that are of concern in tribological systems along with their associated causes and effects. It discusses some of the early discoveries that led to the development of friction laws and the understanding that friction is a system effect that can be analyzed based on energy dissipation. It describes the stick-slip behavior observed in wiper blades, the concept of asperities, and the significance of the shape, lay, roughness, and waviness of surfaces in sliding contact. It explains how friction forces are measured and how they are influenced by speed, load, and operating environment. It also covers rolling contact and fluid friction and the effect of lubrication.

This chapter discusses the structural classifications, molecular configuration, degradation, properties, and uses of polymers. It describes thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers, degree of polymerization, branching, cross-linking, and copolymers. It also discusses glass transition temperatures, additives, and the effect of stretching on thermoplastics.

This chapter deals with the mechanics and tribology associated with the extrusion of bars, sections, and tubes. It covers direct and indirect extrusion processes in detail and demonstrates the use of important equations, relationships, and measurements for determining pressure, force, material flow, friction, die wear, heat generation, and lubrication requirements. The chapter also provides information on hydrostatic, friction-assisted, and severe plastic deformation extrusion processes, discusses the cause of instabilities and defects, and explains how to select and apply lubricants to minimize friction and die wear when extruding steel, aluminum, copper, and refractory metals.

Forging is a deformation process achieved through the application of compressive stresses. During the stroke, pressures and velocities are continuously changing and the initial lubricant supply must suffice for the duration of the operation. Lubricant residues and pickup products also change with time, further complicating the analysis of friction and wear. This chapter provides a qualitative and quantitative overview of the mechanics and tribology of forging in all of its forms. It discusses the effects of friction, pressures, forces, and temperature on the deformation and flow of metals in open-die, closed-die, and impression-die forging and in back extrusion and piercing operations. It presents various ways to achieve fluid-film lubrication in upset forging processes and examines the cause of barreling, defect formation, and folding in the upsetting of cylinders, rings, and slabs. It also explains how to evaluate lubricants, friction, and wear under hot, cold, and warm forging conditions and how to extend die life and reduce defects when processing different materials.

This article briefly reviews abrasive and adhesive wear failure of reinforced polymers and polymer composites, namely particulate-filled polymers, short-fiber-reinforced polymers, polymers with continuous fibers, and mixed reinforcements and fabrics. It includes scanning electron microscope micrographs of abraded surfaces of composites against 80-grade SiC paper and under 14 N load, and worn surfaces of abraded polyether-imide composites and polyamide 66 unidirectional composites and 66 hybrid composites.

Rolling is unique in that it cannot be conducted without friction. Friction draws the workpiece into the roll gap and facilitates its passage through the deformation zone. This chapter provides an overview of the mechanics and tribology of flat rolling processes and explains how various aspects of the theory apply to shape rolling as well. It derives numerous equations and models to help quantify the forces, torque, and power involved in rolling operations and the associated heating, slip, strain distribution, and deformation in both the workpiece and rolls. It describes the friction and wear that occur in hot and cold rolling under hydrodynamic and mixed-film lubrication; the influence of viscosity, film thickness, rolling speed, interface pressure, pass reduction, and lubricant breakdown; and the effect of surface finish and defects. The chapter also provides best practices for evaluating, applying, and treating lubricants for industrially important materials including iron-base, nickel-base, and aluminum alloys.

This article reviews various analytical techniques most commonly used in plastic component failure analysis. The description of the techniques is intended to make the reader familiar with the general principles and benefits of the methodologies. The descriptions of the analytical techniques are supplemented by a series of case studies that include pertinent visual examination results and the corresponding images that aided in the characterization of the failures. The techniques covered include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, thermomechanical analysis, and dynamic mechanical analysis. The article also discusses various analytical methods used to characterize the molecular weight distribution of a polymeric material. It provides information on a wide range of mechanical tests that are available to evaluate plastics and polymers, covering the various considerations in the selection and use of test methods.

This chapter covers the different types of wear encountered in metalworking processes. It discusses the mechanisms involved in adhesive, abrasive, chemical, and fatigue wear and key contributing factors, including the composition and structure of tool and workpiece materials, the characteristics of contact surfaces, and loading forces imposed by the process. It describes the nature of metal transfer between tool and workpiece surfaces and the role of lubricants, coatings, and textures. It also discusses the use of wear maps, the effects of adhesion, and material-lubricant interactions.

This article addresses some established protocols in characterizing thermoplastics, whether they are homogeneous resins, alloyed or blended compositions, or highly modified thermoplastic composites. It begins with a description of various approaches used for the determination of molecular weight (MW) by viscosity measurements. This is followed by a discussion of the use of cone and plate and parallel plate geometries in determining the viscoelastic properties of a polymer melt. Details on some of the chromatographic techniques that allow determination of MW and MW distribution of polymers are then provided. The article concludes with information on three distinctive, but complementary operations of thermoanalytical techniques, namely differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and thermomechanical testing.