Materials screening of matching pairs in a water hydraulic piston pump

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present some design guidelines for the selection of the materials of the main frictional pairs in a water hydraulic piston pump. Design/methodology/approach - In the research, a specified test bench that can simulate the typical frictional pairs in a water hydraulic piston pump was built. The friction and wear behaviors of the three pairs in the pump with different materials combinations were tested on the test bench. The tested materials included metal, engineering ceramics and plastics. Some surface engineering technologies including plasma surface spray, laser clad and heat treatment were applied and tested. The matching schemes included hard-to-hard (such as ceramics-to-ceramics) and hard-to-soft (such as metal-to-plastics, ceramics-to-plastics). Findings - Some principles for the materials selection in a water hydraulic piston pump were obtained. According to the test results, the combination schemes for the main frictional pairs in a water hydraulic piston pump were proposed. Originality/value - A test apparatus that could simulate the movement of main frictional pairs in a water hydraulic piston pump more really than the other general materials machines was developed. Some materials including metal, engineering ceramics and plastics and some engineering technologies were tested. The research described here is an important foundation for the development of a water hydraulic piston pump.