(1) National Science and Technology Development Agency, Ministry of Science and Technology - Pathumthani - Thailand
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) widely used as the interior automotive parts tends to generate friction-induced squeaking noises when rubbing with each other. To minimize annoying squeaking noises, friction characteristics of ABS were modified by compounding technique with some promising additives. In this work, ethylene bis stearamide (EBS) and poly(ethylene-co-octene) (PEOc) were selected as internal lubricants and compounded with ABS utilizing a twin screw extruder, obtaining ABS+0.5wt%EBS and ABS+5wt%PEOc. The friction testing was conducted on a universal testing machine equipped with the friction testing fixture. The effects of lubricant types and part surface roughness on the friction characteristics, static and kinetic coefficient of friction (COFs) and double amplitude of stick-slip curve were investigated in this study. The double amplitude was especially used to evaluate the tendency to produce the squeaking noise of ABS and its compounds. It was found that PEOc was more effective than EBS in reducing COFs and double amplitude of stick-slip curves of ABS. Due to the migration of PEOc to the part surface, its surface energy decreased leading to the reduction in adhesion between the moving surfaces of ABS with PEOc added. Moreover, the static and kinetic COFs of ABS+5wt%PEOc showed strong dependence on the surface roughness while this was not the case for ABS and ABS+0.5wt%EBS.