Spatiotemporal mapping for in-situ and real-time tribological analysis in polymer-metal contacts

Spatiotemporal mapping (SMA) is a graphical technique to visualise the evolution of data with time and space during a process. This paper discusses the benefits of SMA in the field of polymer tribology via two highly different polymer/metal sliding systems. The SMA is found useful for the qualitative and quantitative characterisation and analysis of the transfer phenomena at the contact interface during repeated sliding, e.g., the slideroll mechanism of transfer lumps, the severe-to-mild wear transition due to the tribo-chemical reaction of PTFE, the accumulation of wear debris, and the formation of friction-reducing back-transfer polyimide films. Additionally, the SMA helps spot various abnormal tribological behaviours, such as the local removal of oxides on a misaligned disc that would otherwise be overlooked.