Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
I need to print a piece that will have to glide within an aluminium guide. In other words I need to minimise the friction between the aluminium and the piece.
I was thinking about Nylon, but I am wondering if there are better materials for the purpose.
RE: Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
Lookup the "Coefficient of Friction " for the materials you are considering. The lower the number, the more slippery it will be. It is usually shown from 0.0 to 1.0.
Tom
RE: Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
I highly recommend IGUS Filaments that are specially developed for sliding purpose and bearings.
https://www.igus.eu/3d-print-material/3d-print-filament?C=DE&L=en
Maybe just send a mail with your special request to them. As per my experience IGUS responds quite quick...
Regards
Habo
It also depends how fast and how often the part moves, and whether the contact area can be reduced for eg. if movement is slow and infrequent then even PLA might work - but for continuous rapid movement your main concerns might be lubrication and dissipating the heat of friction.
Cheerio,
RE: Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
You could also consider using a piece of delrin or ptfe as a runner and just design in a slot to hold it on the printed part.
RE: Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
@thomas-lynch do you have a link to a table with the friction coefficients
RE: Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
@jp-guitars this is a brilliant idea. I still have plenty of PTFE tubes that could be reused for this
RE: Low friction part on aluminum. Which material?
Not sure how well a tube would work as to would flex, I suppose you could make disks. I was thinking more like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DXLing-Self-Adhesive-Furniture-Rectangle-Adhesive/dp/B0CB38SLSY/