A comparative study of tribological and mechanical properties of composite polymer coatings on bearing steel

In this study, epoxy and SU-8 resin along with its composites was coated over bearing steel. The graphite, talc and base oil were used to fabricate the composites using spin-coater. The tribological and surface characterisation tests were performed on both type of polymer and its composite using ball-on-disk setup, optical microscope, 3D optical profilometer, and goniometer, respectively. From the results, it can be seen that epoxy and its composites polymer showed lower coefficient of friction (similar to 0.16), high wear resistance properties (> 10(2) times), improvement in mechanical properties (elastic modulus and hardness) (similar to 3-4 times) and better hydrophobic nature as compared to SU-8 polymer (similar to 34%) and its composites. Furthermore, a neural network model was developed to determine the influential parameters on specific wear rate and coefficient of friction.