TRIBOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF EPOXY FLOOR FILLED BY RECYCLED RUBBER PARTICLES

Abstract

It is essential to reduce the brittleness that limits the applications of floor materials made of epoxy resins. In the present work, recycled rubber particles and paraffin oil are filling epoxy. Recycled rubber of different sizes were used as filling material, while oil content was 5.0 and 10.0 wt. %. The rubber is added to increase the toughness, while oil is to increase the viscoelastic property of the proposed composites. The tribological properties of the tested composites are investigated. The experimental observation showed that increasing the rubber content significantly increased friction coefficient. The highest friction values were observed for rubber particle size ranging between 1.0 to 2.0 mm. Composites filled by oil showed that further increase in rubber particle size was accompanied by friction increase. Generally, the values of friction coefficient were much higher than that recommended for safe floor materials. In abrasion test, wear increased as the rubber content increased due to the weakening of the epoxy matrix, where the highest friction coefficient and lowest wear were displayed by the tested composites filled by 5.0 wt. % oil and 80 wt. % rubber content of (2.0 – 3.0) mm particle size. According to the experimental results, those composites can be recommended as floor materials, where the addition of oil enhanced the viscoelastic property of the rubber and consequently the abrasion resistance increased.