Wear mechanism of treated oil palm empty fruit bunch fibre reinforced polyoxymethylene composite

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the potential improvement in the wear resistance of polyoxymethylene (POM) based composite using oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre as reinforcement. This is to provide a prospective candidate of tribo-materials for low friction application such as bearing composite. Initially, the OPEFB fibre were treated with sodium hydroxide solution for 1 h at 2 wt% concentration to improve the fibre-matrix adhesion. Untreated and treated OPEFB fibre were incorporated into POM matrix to develop composite using a compression moulding technique under different fibre loading (10, 20 and 30 wt%). Subsequently, its wear mechanism was observed using a pin-on-disc machine at applied load 30 N and sliding speed 100 rpm under dry contact condition. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyze the worn surface morphology. The results revealed that massive damages were observed on the untreated composite compared to treated composite. The wear mechanism of the OPEFB/POM composite was predominated by micro-cracks, deep groove and delamination.