The Wear of Polysiloxane-Modified Epoxies

An epoxy resin was chemically modified with poly (dimethyl-codiphenyl siloxane) to enhance its fracture toughness. The fatigue and abrasive wear of the modified epoxy was measured in a pin-on-disk configuration as a function of the amount of modifier in the epoxy resin. The wear rate decreased as the weight percent of the modifier was increased. The fatigue wear rate also was positively correlated with the ratio of the surface tensile stress to the fracture toughness and the abrasive wear correlated with the inverse of the fracture toughness.