TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The present paper seeks to report the effect of duration of rubbing on friction coefficient for different polymer and composite materials. Variations of friction coefficient and wear rate with the normal load are also investigated experimentally when stainless steel (SS 304) pin slides on different types of materials such as cloth‐reinforced ebonite (commercially known as gear fiber), glass fiber‐reinforced plastic (glass fiber), nylon and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).Design/methodology/approach– A pin on disc apparatus is designed and fabricated. During experiment, the rpm of test samples was kept constant and relative humidity was 70 percent.Findings– Studies have shown that the values of friction coefficient depend on applied load and duration of rubbing. It is observed that the values of friction coefficient decrease with the increase of normal load for glass fiber, nylon and PTFE. Different trend is observed for gear fiber, i.e. coefficient of friction increases with the increase of normal load. It is also found that wear rate increases with the increase of normal load for all the materials. The magnitudes of friction coefficient and wear rate are different for different materials.Practical implications– It is expected that the applications of these results will contribute to the design of different mechanical components of these materials.Originality/value– Within the observed range of applied normal load, the relative friction coefficient and wear rate of gear fiber, glass fiber, nylon and PTFE are experimentally investigated. VL - 63 IS - 5 SN - 0036-8792 DO - 10.1108/00368791111154931 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/00368791111154931 AU - Muhammad Nuruzzaman Dewan AU - Asaduzzaman Chowdhury Mohammad AU - Lutfar Rahaman Mohammad PY - 2011 Y1 - 2011/01/01 TI - Effect of duration of rubbing and normal load on friction coefficient for polymer and composite materials T2 - Industrial Lubrication and Tribology PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 320 EP - 326 Y2 - 2024/09/20 ER -