The Effects of Surface Texture on the Wear Properties of Mechanical Seals Made of Metal and Polymers

In order to improve the anti-wear properties of mechanical seals made of metal and polymer, surface texture of dimple patterns was fabricated by photolithography and micro-electrochemical machining on 316 stainless steel, the wear tests of textured stainless steel against five different polymer materials were carried out. It is found that surface texture increased wear while the lowest Young's modulus material UHMWPE was used, as well as decreased wear to other four materials whose Young's modulus were higher, and the wear rate decreased significantly as the Young's modulus of polymer materials raised. Then, the FEM software ANSYS was employed to analyze the stress and deformation of contact surfaces to explain the mechanisms. The results show that textured surface increased the contact stress and deformation at the edges of texture. And the deformation became more obvious to results in cutting wear possibly while the Young's modulus was low.