I’m trying to obtain some self-lubricated prints for a miniature gear pump I am making. My goal is to enhance lubrication without the use of oil and grease, and to reduce friction and wear. To do that, I am planning on adding some raw powder of either teflon or graphite to the resin. I still haven’t decided on resin type, but it will be clear, tough, or a mix of the two.
I just wanted to ask if anyone could offer some advice (as I am new to the area), and to see if anyone has done anything like this in the past. Also, advice on uniform mixing strategies with this kind of resin would also be appreciated.
I’m not sure the resins have the wear characteristics to give them a decent life in this kind of application. But if it’s a gear pump, whatever you’re pumping is going to be passing through the gears. I’d expect that pretty much any fluid is going to provide all the inherent lubrication you’d need.
I think Tough is too soft for this, depending on how large/small you’re planning to make the gears. Clear will be more brittle but provided you’re not planning on pumping something highly viscous at a high rate it will probably be the better choice in terms of both performance and longevity.
clear/tough in an 80/20 ratio might be a good option. I’m interested in how your experiments come out. please post your findings. might want to do a plain resin and a lubricated resin and then test to failure first (like with a drill spinning a shaft in the bushing) and timing it or something. roundness and tolerances will play a big part in all of this. make sure you’ve dialed in xyz in fine tuning first.