Dry sliding wear behaviour of organo-modified montmorillonite filled epoxy nanocomposites using Taguchi’s techniques

The aim of the research article is to study the dry sliding wear behaviour of epoxy with different wt.% of organo-modified montmorillonite (OMMT) filled nanocomposites. An orthogonal array (L9) was used to investigate the influence of tribological parameters. The results indicate that the sliding distance emerges as the most significant factor affecting wear rate of epoxy nanocomposites. Experimental results showed that the inclusion of 5 wt.% OMMT nanofiller increased the wear resistance of the epoxy nanocomposite significantly. Furthermore, the worn surfaces of the samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the wear mechanisms and to correlate them with the wear test results.