Why Do POM Gears Produce Wear Powder and Noise After Long-Term Running?
POM, also called acetal or polyoxymethylene, is commonly used for plastic gears because it has good dimensional stability, moldability, and sliding behavior. However, in long-term running, some POM gears still show:
1. The Problem
POM, also called acetal or polyoxymethylene, is commonly used for plastic gears because it has good dimensional stability, moldability, and sliding behavior. However, in long-term running, some POM gears still show:
DGK-POM TF90M. is the closest DEYU product page for a POM + PTFE low-friction gear route.
white wear powder; noise increase; tooth surface polishing; unstable gear meshing; tooth chipping during assembly; shorter replacement cycle.
This does not always mean that POM is the wrong resin. In many cases, the issue comes from friction pair, gear design, molding stress, tooth accuracy, or insufficient low-friction modification.
2. Why It Happens
Common causes include:
ordinary POM has insufficient lubrication for dry meshing; gear teeth have high local contact stress; molding shrinkage affects tooth accuracy; internal stress increases chipping risk; surface roughness of the mating gear is too high; running temperature increases friction and wear; the selected material focuses on stiffness but not sliding stability.
For POM gears, tensile strength and flexural modulus alone cannot explain the real problem. The more important customer data is usually wear depth, noise, tooth surface condition, and defect rate after the running test.
3. DEYU Material Direction
DEYU may recommend a DGK-POM TF90M POM + PTFE wear-resistant compound when the main issue is friction noise and wear powder.
Development direction:
reduce friction between gear teeth; reduce visible wear powder; maintain gear dimensional stability; control molding shrinkage; avoid excessive tooth brittleness; validate final gear noise and wear depth.
4. Product Detail Fields Used for This Route
The article uses the current DEYU product-detail fields instead of estimated mechanical ranges.
| Product field | DGK-POM TF90M |
|---|---|
| Base Resin | POM |
| Model | TF90M |
| Key Performance | Contains 20% PTFE wear additive; low friction coefficient. |
| Application Cases | Gears, sliders, bearings and low-friction parts. |
| Processing | Injection molding |
| Color Service | Supported |
5. Customer Debugging Data
| Item | Ordinary POM Gear | DEYU DGK-POM TF90M POM + PTFE Trial |
|---|---|---|
| Trial quantity | 5,000 pcs | 6,000 pcs |
| Wear powder rate after running test | 8.1% | 2.2% |
| Average wear depth | 0.084 mm | 0.036 mm |
| Gear noise after 100 h | 60 dB | 54 dB |
| Tooth chipping during assembly | 2.5% | 0.9% |
| Molding defect rate | 3.4% | 1.6% |
| Replacement cycle direction | 3–4 months | 7 months direction |
6. Result Interpretation
In this validation scenario, the DGK-POM TF90M POM + PTFE direction reduced average wear depth by about 57% compared with ordinary POM. The reduction was not only caused by PTFE addition. Molding stress control, tooth accuracy, and material flow adjustment also contributed to the final result.
Conclusion
When POM gears generate wear powder and noise, the solution is not always changing to a harder plastic. A lower-friction POM + PTFE route may be more suitable when the main failure is dry sliding wear, noise, or unstable meshing.
