Characteristics Of Wear Resistanceand Hardness Investigation Of Graphite Powder Filler And Kevlar Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Matrix Composites – A Taguchi’s Approach.

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Vinay Kumar D, Mohan N, Venkataraja Mohan S D, Rajesh K, Sachit T S , Akshay Prasad M

Abstract

In this work the attempt is made to investigate the importance of reinforcements like graphite powder at various percentages in the polypropylene matrix to evaluate the tribo-mechanical properties of the composites developed. The graphite powder is reinforced in multiple weight fraction i.e 3%, 5% and 7% along with a 30% reinforced Kevlar fibers. For the uniform mixing of the fillers and fibers, twin screw extrusion method was involved followed by the hot compression molding. The various weight factions of the composites developed were taken for the tribological tests. Pin on disc machine rig is used to conduct the tribological study as per the ASTM standards. Design of experiment was adopted to know the optimal level of the wear rate. Minitab software is used to know the multiple interactions between the composites and their factors.  The load applied on the pin on the disc at various levels, the rotation of the disc at different speed and the weight fraction of the composites are considered as the factors. Also, the shore D hardness of the composites was investigated as per the ASTM standards. From the investigation it is concluded that higher the percentage of reinforcement of the graphite powder the wear resistance will be high. Also the presence of Kevlar fiber in the composites helped in enhancing the wear rate of the composites. The 7% presence of the graphite powder composites is able to perform better w.r.t hardness test. 

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