Viscoelastic and Tribological Properties of Epoxy Resins
Hideki YAMANE, Takeshi KOKUBO, Masaoki TAKAHASHI and Toru HORIUCHI
Abstract:Dynamic viscoelasticity and tribological properties of epoxy resins cured using four curing agents with various chain length were studied. Viscoelastic functions of the resins were similar in form and the glass transition temperature Tg decreased with increasing chain length of the curing agent. Hence, these epoxy samples showed simialr viscoelastic properties in a temperature range in reference to Tg. Changes in the velocity and the applied pressure in the tribological tests affected the temperature of the friction interface. Observation of the wearing behavior revealed that there were three different temperature ranges in reference to Tg. At temperatures below Tg-100BC all the samples showed a fairly low coefficient of friction, leaving flake like wear particles. At temperatures above Tg-100BC, the coefficient of friction increased with temperature. In an intermediate temperature range about 20 to 100BC less than Tg, roll debris came out. At temperatures near and higher than Tg, samples were severely damaged and the wear rate was extremely high. Key Words:Tribological properties, Dynamic viscoelasticity, Epoxy resin, Glass transition temperature