PEEK Wear Test System

Abstract

The wear characteristics of PEEK carbon fiber composites are not well understood in comparison to high strength materials in common use such as steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber epoxy. This lack of understanding limits the applications in which the superior strength to weight ratio and stiffness of PEEK carbon fiber composites may be utilized with confidence to situations in which there are no significant bearing surface interactions between nearby components. The objective of this project was to design, build, and test a machine that is capable of evaluating the behavior of PEEK carbon fiber composites in a long term, high contact environment, and compare their performance directly against more familiar materials, like steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber epox