Investigation of Hybrid Polyamide Composites for Replacement of Metallic Parts

Over the past few decades, the world is looking for a better replacement option for metals. Polymers with reinforcements are finding their way deep inside in most of the engineering applications because of its lightweight and superior properties. The aim of this study is to investigate hybrid polymer composite polyphthalamide (PPA) reinforced with glass fiber and Poly tetra fluro ethylene. The reinforcement was varied as 10, 20, 30wt. % of Glass Fibre, while the fixed quantity of Poly Tetra Fluro Ethylene (PTFE) as 5wt. % was taken for hybrid composites preparation. The virgin and hybrid composite specimen were prepared under optimal process parametric conditions through the use of injection moulding techniques and test samples were produced as per ASTM standards. The response of physical properties such as density and various Mechanical testing like Hardness, Tensile Strength, and impact strength were carried out and noted. Further, the dry sliding tribological tests were carried out at room temperature using pin-on-disc Tribometer apparatus by varying the applied load of 10, 20, 30, 40N and sliding distance of 1000, 2000m parametric condition with this wear rate and coefficient of friction of samples were calculated. By carrying out the above test, it was found that hybrid composite PPA with 30 wt.% of Glass fiber and 5wt. % of PTFE shown better results in comparison with other prepared Virgin and hybrid composites samples. Later in order to suggest the suitability of hybrid composite PPA with 30 wt. % of Glass fiber and 5wt. % of PTFE tested results were compared with LM6 Aluminium alloy and was found that the hybrid polymer composite had closer properties to LM6 in all aspects which were mainly due to the proper bonding between reinforcement materials and fine distribution of load carrying capacity between the reinforcements. Therefore the prepared combination of hybrid polymer composite found to be a replacement for structural casing parts in automobile components.