The tribology of plastics — an overview

With the widening use of plastics, it has become an urgent task to study their behaviour in friction systems. The present paper reviews the applications of plastics during the past decades and their function in friction systems. The paper analyses the basic differences between metals and plastics in structure and properties, and points out the limitations, or inapplicability, of using metal tribology to solve problems in plastic friction systems when even different kinds of high-molecular materials have different shapes and applications. The paper also looks at the variety of plastic surfaces, and briefly presents the mechanism, theory, and calculation of the fiction, wear, and lubrication of plastics; theories of plastic wear are summarised. Also presented are the technical functions, simple application techniques, and economic benefits of plastic friction systems.