Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Bismaleimide-Based Polyimide Composites

To develop new polymeric tribomaterials for mechanical sliding parts such as bearing, cum, gear and seal, in this study, we aimed to experimentally investigate the mechanical and tribological properties of glass fiber (GF) reinforced bismaleimide-based polyimide (PI) composites. Thermosetting type commercially bismaleimide-based PI was used as a matrix polymer for composite materials to prepare GF/PI composites with the GF content of 10 and 20 vol. % by defibration of fiber, pre-forming, dry mixing, hot press molding (compression-molded) and heat treatment. Mechanical properties such as Barcol hardness, bending and tribological properties were evaluated using ring -on-plate type sliding wear testing. It was found that Barcol hardness, bending strength and modulus of GF/PI composites improve with increasing GF content. On the other hand, the influence of fiber content on the tribological properties, namely frictional coefficient and specific wear rate of GF/PI composites, differed for each tribological property. This may be attributed to change in the wear mechanism of GF/PI composites according to fiber content.