Tribological properties of self-reinforced ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composites

In this paper, high strength and high modulus UHMWPE fiber into UHMWPE powder was added into UHMWPE powder to gain a series of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) self-reinforced modification composites by hot pressing. Friction and wear behaviors were evaluated on M-2000 tester. The results show that the friction coefficient of the fiber-UHMWPE composites is lower than pure UHMWPE, with a minimum value of 0.250 of reinforced samples with 50 wt% content of long fiber. The samples with 50 wt% content of fiber also show a better performance on wear resistance than others with the wear rate of 1.886 × 10^–7mg ˙ m ^–1N^–1. SEM morphology of worn surface reveals that adhesive wear is the main wear mechanism for pure UHMWPE which also has a small size of wear debris. Correspondingly, the wear pattern of fiber-UHMWPE composites is fatigue wear and big size of wear debris is formed during the sliding process.