UDC 678: 620.

1(;9 FATIGUE P R O P E R T I E S OF K A P R O N ( N Y L O N - 6 ) AND KAPROLON

A. V. Stinskas, N. I. Antropova, V. I. Korobov, S. B. Rather, A. V. Samokhvalov, and A. V. Sharova Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 118-122, 1965 It is shown that kaprolon has high fatigue strength as compared with kapron (nylon-6) and other thermoplastics. This is attributable both to its high static fatigue strength and to its high fatigue coefficient. For both kapron and kaprolon a sharp increase in hysteretic heat production is observed after critical selfheating at 15 C; in this case the endurance of both materials is low. In view of the widespread use of kapron (nylon-6) and kaprolon in machine building, we investigated their fatigue strength, one of the most important properties of a structural material Kaprolon, a relatively new type of polymer with a number of favorable structural characteristics, is a high-molecular polycaproamide obtained by anionic polymerization. As distinct from kapron, kaprolon is obtained as a result of a process of caprolactam polymerization at a temperature below the melting point of the polymer in the presence of alkaline catalysts without pressure. This makes it possible to produce large blocks and parts. The resulting polymer has a high molecular weight and good mechanical properties [t, 2]. We studied two types of kaprolon obtained with different alkaline polymerization activators: A - with sodium caprolactam and acetic anhydride, and S - with sodium caprolaetam and carbon dioxide. The kaprolon test pieces were cut from blocks and machined. Kapron B was taken as a standard of comparison. The test pieces were cut from molded cylinders and normalized in an oil bath. The mechanical properties of the materials are presented in Table 1. Testing Method The fatigue tests were conducted on a rotating cantilever device with the load suspended from the end of the cylindrical test piece (Fig. la). This develops alternating bending stresses in the test piece which fails in fatigue after a certain number of cycles depending on the load. By varying the Ioad it is possible to obtain a series of values of the fatigue strength corresponding to different "lifetimes" of the specimen. The result of combining these data is a fatigue curve that characterizes the ability of the material to withstand alternating loads.

- ~. . . . . . . . . 7 , H , N

~-

////...//2..~v/__fl u

5 ~T

y,)

~'/////'////////.

*L

.............

Fig. 1. Fatigue testing appratus: a) diagram of testing machine; b) dimensions of test piece; c) diagram of device for measuring test piece temperature. 1) Weights (load); 2) test piece; 3) chuck; 4) spindle; 8) electric motor; 6) flexible cable; 7) face plate; 8) centrifugal compensator; 9) thermocouple; 10) EPP-09. 90

The test pieces employed are shown in Fig. lb. The loading frequency was !000 cycles/rain. The tests were conducted at an external temperature of about 20"C. Mechanical Properties of Kapron and Kaprolon
II
I II 1 I

Material

Static bending strength, kgf/ cm 2 1280 1160 900

Hardness, kgf/mm 2 22 23 14

Fatigue strength at 106 cycles, Fatigue coefficient, K.100% kgf/cm z 290 300
170

Kaprolon A . . . . . Kaprolon S. . . . . . Kapron B. . . . . . .

23 26 t9

The temperature in the working length of the test piece at different stages Of the fatiguing process was measured on a special "inverted" device, in which not the test piece, but the force field rotated. The measuring thermocouple was introduced through a narrow hole drilled along the axis of the test piece (Fig. lc). Fatigue S.trength From the test data we constructed, for each material, the fatigue curves shown in Fig. 2. From this figure it is clear that the fatigue curves of Kaprolon A and S are almost completely identical. b

~o

28o 1255

~00 _ _ _ _ {

____.....~200
~ I 300
a

f65
"~ ~o ,so.~o I noool

C~ tOO

Number of cycles
Fig. 2. Fatigue curves: t) kaprolon A; 2) kaprolon S; 3) kapron.

N u m b e r o f cycles, thousands

tO

2~

30

~0

50

Fig. 3. Kinetics of self-heating at 1000 cycles/min and various stresses: a) haprolor~ b) kapron.

The fatigue strength corresponding to a base of 106 cycles is practically the same (close to 800 kgf/cm z) for the types of kaprolon investigated (see also Table 1). It is considerably (70%) higher than the fatigue strength of kapron. With respect to fatigue streng:h kaprolon approaches reinforced plastics, and in certain cases even surpasses them, e. g., textolite PT [3], a characteristic which sharply distinguishes it from the other thermoplastics [4]. It is also noteworthy that kaprolon is characterized not only by high fatigue strength but also by a high fatigue coefficient (see Table t), which indicates that after a certain number of loading cycles kaprolon retains a much greater proportion of its original strength than do kapron and other thermoplastics [4, 8]. Self-Heatin~ The results of measurements of the temperature of the test piece during testing are in full agreement with the views put forth in reference [7], namely, for both materials, investigated under conditions of cyclic bending, there is a perfectly definite value of the test piece temperature at which the rate of heat production in the material starts to increase sharply, whereupon the test piece temperature begins to rise very steeply, reaching 100C and more in 1-2 minutes. This leads to gradual failure.

91

The existence of this critical limit and the lack of temperature stabilization, during fatigue testing (starting from a certain level of cyclic toading) mean that the fatigue strength and endurance of kapron and kaprolon are limited precisely by these heating effects, tn fact, from the self-heating curves (Figs. 3a and 8b) it is clear that for the given test conditions and any stress much in excess of 290 kgf/cm 2 for kapron the self-heating temperature of the test piece must sooner or later reach the critical value AT k = 18C, which marks the onset of failure. Thus, the load-carrying capacity of the materials under cyclic loading is defined by the region of loads that do not cause a marked increase in the temperature of the test piece during the fatiguing process. Experiments showed that, in accordance with theory [7], the critical temperature T k has a stable value and does not depend on the load, the loading frequency, or the heat transfer conditions (Table 2). Note that in our case the critical temperature was determined as the point of intersection of the tangents to the fiat and steep parts of the temperature curve. Moreover, special experiments showed that increase in temperature is not accompanied by processes of an exothermic type either in unloaded kaprolon or kaprolon loaded in static compression. Hence the sharp rise in heat production must be primarily associated with the dynamic properties of the material, as shown in [7]. All this throws light both on the enhanced sensitivity of the fatigue properties of the materials in question to heat transfer conditions and on the higher fatigue factor of kaprolon as compared with kapmn (kaprolon is more heat-resistaut). Thus, with improvement in the heat transfer conditions (forced air, volatile liquid cooling) the fatigue strength of the investigated materials increases Criticat Self-Heating Temperature [5, 6]. This also follows from the data of Table 2, where it is shown that in the for Kaprolon case of forced air cooling, in order to get the same heating effect, in a kaproTest conditions Ion specimen it was necessary to increase the cyclic stress by 22% Frequency, Stress, Tk, C The phenomenon studied should be taken into account when the investigcycles/rain kgf/cm 2 ated materials are used for parts operating under alternating loads, especially if these parts may be exposed to elevated temperatures. 36 415 600 395 1000 35 Summary 35 380 1500 Same with forced 35 490 air 1. Kaprolon has a relatively high fatigue strength (about 300 kgf/cm 2 for 34 340 3000 a base of 106 cycles). In this respect it is much superior to kapron (nylon-6) and 35--+I Mean other thermoplastics and approaches the level of reinforced plastics. 2. A noteworthy feature of the fatigue properties of kapron and kaprolon, with an important effect on the fatigue failure process, is the sharp increase in XX hysteretic heat production beyond a certain critical temperature. It has been established that for both materials AT : : 15C,
REFERENCES

1. N. I. Antropova, K. N. Vlasova, G. I. Pavlova, A. V. Samokhvalov, and A. V. Sharova, Plast. massy, 7,

1957.
2. K, N. Vlasova, N. I. Antropova et al., Plast. massy, 1, 1963.

3. K. V. Zakharov, Trudy LPI, 5, 1949.

4. 5. 6. 7.

S. A. S. S.

B. Rather, A. V. Stinskas, and Yu. G. Gil'gendorf, Plast. massy, 9, 1960. V. Stinskas, Candidate's Dissertation, Karpov Physico-Chemical Institute, Moscow, 1963. B. Rather and N. I. Barash, Mekh. polim. [Polymer Mechanics], 1, 124, 1965. B. Ramer and V. I. Korobov, Mekh. polim. [Polymer Mechanics], 1965 (in press). Moscow

12 October 1964

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