Tribological characterisation of new PAEK polymer developments

High performance injection mouldable polyaryletherketone family (PAEK) polymers, and their engineered

compounds, are materials that facilitate and enable automotive manufacturers to achieve safety,

environmental and cost goals now and in the future. For automotive powertrain designers and manufacturers,

addressing frictional performance needs of new technology adopted onto the modern passenger car is a key

performance challenge. As automotive powertrain manufacturers continue to innovate to meet the legislation

and cost goals, the pressure, velocity and temperature can affect the frictional performance of components

and as such will reduce the lifetime reliability. The project objective is to fully chararcterise the tribological

perfomance of current and new PAEK polymers. Assessing the tribological performance of development PAEK

polymers would provide a starting point to determine the performance potential at an early stage for

addressing the needs, and support the delivery of a solution to enable continued downsizing, weight saving and

increased reliability to Automotive powertrain manufacturers.