Mechanical and tribological properties of thermoplastic polyimide based composites loaded with various PTFE fillers

The mechanical and tribological properties of “Polyimide (PI) – PTFE” composites (loaded with various size particles and fibers) at testing against metal and ceramic counterpart have been studied. It is shown that at fine PTFE powder (fluorolite) content equal to 10 wt. % the mechanical properties of the composite are comparable with ones of neat PI due to the uniform filler distribution in the matrix. At the same time, wear resistance of the composite increases up to 100 times due to transfer film formation on a counterpart surface. The composite “PI + 10 wt. % fluorolite” is recommended for antifriction applications for metal-polymer and ceramic-polymer tribological friction units.