Abstract

The wear behavior of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR) was in-vestigated using a blade-type abrader with a steel blade (SB), Ti-coated tungsten carbide blade (TiB), or zirconia blade (ZB). The wear rate of SBR against SB and TiB decreased with increasing number of revolutions because of the blunt-ing of the blades during wear. However, the wear rate of SBR against ZB remained nearly constant with little blade blunting. Generally, the wear rate of BR was largely unaffected by the blade material used for abrasion. The wear rate and frictional coefficient of SBR were found to be higher than those of BR at similar levels of frictional energy input. A power-law relationship was found between the wear rate and frictional energy input during abrasion. A well-known Schallamach pattern was observed for SBR, while a much finer pattern was observed for BR. The blade material affects the wear rate of the rubbers because the macromolecular free radicals and blade tend to undergo mechano-chemical reactions. The inorganic ZB was found to be the most inert for such a mechanism.

Keywords: wear;styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR);butadiene rubber (BR);blade;zirconia