A solid lubricant composite material was made by compression molding PTFE and 40 nm alumina particles. Prior to compression molding the constituent powders were blended using a jet milling apparatus.  Composites from 0 to 20 weight % were prepared.  These composites were tested against a polished stainless steel counterface on a reciprocating tribometer.  The experimental conditions were a contact pressure of 6.4 MPa, a stroke length of 50mm, and a sliding speed of 50 mm/s.  The friction coefficient of the composite increased over unfilled samples from roughly µ=0.15 to µ=0.20.  At filler concentrations of 20 wt.%, the wear resistance improved 600x.  The wear resistance of this composite increased monotonically with increasing filler concentration and no optimum filler fraction was found.

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WEAR
Vol. 254 (2003) pp 573-580