High Density, low friction plastic
High Density, low friction plastic
(OP)
Hello Everyone,
I am looking for a plastic material that I can make a shim and cylinder out of- it needs to be strong enough to support screw threads through its sidewalls, but have low enough friction to be able to effectively slide up and down. Low wear is also a necessity. Does anyone have any material ideas for plastic on plastic sliding? The pieces are for a film thickness guage that uses the Eddy current, so no metal can be near the tip. Thanks in advance.
Benjamin Tremblay
I am looking for a plastic material that I can make a shim and cylinder out of- it needs to be strong enough to support screw threads through its sidewalls, but have low enough friction to be able to effectively slide up and down. Low wear is also a necessity. Does anyone have any material ideas for plastic on plastic sliding? The pieces are for a film thickness guage that uses the Eddy current, so no metal can be near the tip. Thanks in advance.
Benjamin Tremblay






RE: High Density, low friction plastic
Polyoxymethylene, commonly called acetal. Trade names Hostaform, Delrin amongst many, many others. Available in bar/sheet stock for machining or pellets for extrusion and injection mouldings.
Some injection moulding grades are available with PTFE in for even lower friction.
Easy to machine or mould.
Cheers
Harry
RE: High Density, low friction plastic
Would this material be available to rapid prototypers by any chance?
Ben
RE: High Density, low friction plastic
I'm not aware of an additive RP process that uses acetal (SLS comes to mind as a possibility, but I've never seen an SLS part in acetal). You can certainly have prototypes machined from acetal stock.
RE: High Density, low friction plastic
Sounds good. This gives me a solid start. Appreciate it.