The Durability Performance of Polyketone Gears under Various Lubrication Conditions

Abstract

Polyketone (PK) is an environmentally friendly engineering plastic with good wear resistance and shows potential in gear applications. In this work, the durability of PK gears under various lubrication conditions was investigated via a power opened gear durability test rig and compared with polyformaldehyde (POM) gears. Experimental results show that PK gears under oil lubrication and grease lubrication represent the same failure mode at the same torque. The contact fatigue life of oil-lubricated PK gear was higher than that under grease lubrication but slightly lower than POM gear under the same conditions.