Abstract
The work presents a study on a possible solution of metal replacement for pneumatic drives rods working in dry friction condition. If the total absence of lubricant and others contaminating agents is required, due to specific working environment, the pneumatic drives use is recommended. The rod sealing system is elastomeric lip seal based and works, in this case, in linear sliding dry condition. The authors tried to establish the way that polymeric material replacing the metallic rod behaves, taking into account the working conditions. Considering that the sealing system failure is due to wear, a closer investigation is performed at surfaces level by optical and 3D reconstruction methods. The observations allowed an optimization of polymeric rod rubber lip seal system in dry sliding conditions from the materials choosing point of view. Keywords: dry friction, elastomer-plastomer couple, linear sliding motion