Sand dust abrasive wear behavior of two polymer tapes

The wear behaviors of polymer parts of ATM (Auto Teller Machine) in the sand dust environment were firstly investigated. The tape-scraper tribosystem derived from ATM was used to study the wear behaviors of PEN (poly (ethylene-2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate)) and PI (polyimide) tape under the falling sand dust environment with varied sand dust flow rate. The natural sand sampled from the desert was used as the falling dust. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis was carried out to understand the operating wear mechanisms. As main results, the PI tape has higher wear resistance to the sand dust particles than PEN tape does. The micro wear mechanism for PEN is plastic flow and broken of the fiber structure, while that for PI is crack initiation, extending and block fracture. The deformation factors show good explanation of the wear resistance of polymer tapes.