Tribological Comparison of Engineering Polymers in Dry Contact With 6061-T6 Alloy

In this study, four widely used high-performance polymers polyoxymethylene copolymer (POM-C), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyamide-6 (PA-6), and cast polyamide-6 (PA-6G) were systematically evaluated under dry sliding conditions when paired with 6061-T6 aluminum alloy as the tribological counterpart. Frictional properties were examined through tribometer measurements to determine the average coefficients of friction, while wear rates were analyzed using the optical profilometry method. The results showed that PA-6G exhibited the best overall tribological performance, having the lowest coefficient of friction (0.16) and the lowest wear rate (1.87%). PA-6 demonstrated the second-best performance with a friction coefficient of 0.22 and an approximate wear rate of 7.87%. Although PTFE exhibited a relatively low coefficient of friction (0.28), it showed a considerably high wear rate (22.10%). POM-C, compared to the other tested polymer samples, presented the highest coefficient of friction (0.34) and a high wear rate (25.84%), indicating poor tribological performance. The aluminum counterpart material (6061-T6) exhibited the highest wear rate of 42.32%. In this study, POM-C, PTFE, PA-6, and PA-6G polymers, which have been frequently reported in recent literature, were comparatively evaluated under identical test conditions to contribute to both industrial applications and the academic community.