Characterization of wear particles for comprehension of wear mechanisms: Case of PTFE against cast iron

The aim of this article is to find correlations between the characteristics of the wear particles, the coefficients of friction and the wear rates in order to determine wear mechanisms. In the air compressors, piston rings are made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) but its wear rate is very high and it must be reinforced. This work is devoted to the influence of temperature with three types of PTFE (pure and filled with glass fibre and carbographite) against flake grey cast iron thanks to a phenomenological study of the contact.