Recently, the demand for electric vehicles is intensively increasing in accordance with environmental issues in automotive industries. Given that noise level from the electric vehicles is significantly lower than that from conventional vehicles with internal combustion engine, noise management has become more critical. Conventionally, glass run channel (GRC) is used to block the noise and contaminants from outside of vehicle. In this work, the friction and degradation characteristics of GRC with thermoplastic vulcanizate substrate were assessed. The tests were performed using the reciprocating tribo-tester developed to replicate the contact sliding between GRC and window glass. Also, the test conditions were determined in consideration of operating condition of GRC. As a result, the plastic deformation of the lips due to creep and wear of the slip coating deposited on the lip surface were found to be major degradation mechanisms. Furthermore, it was shown that the friction and degradation increased significantly due to the misalignment between GRC and window glass, associated with the significant increase in the reaction force. The results of this work provide fundamental understanding of the degradation characteristics of GRC, and therefore are expected to be useful for the design of GRC with improved performance.

In this work, the degradation progression of a polyurethane (PU) hydraulic reciprocating seal with respect to the sliding distance were investigated using a pin-on-reciprocating tribo-tester. Also, the acceleration effect of alumina particles added in lubricant on degradation of PU seal were assessed, with an aim to contribute to the development of accelerated wear testing methods. As a result, It was shown that the height of PU specimens decreased drastically at the initial stage of sliding. Then, the height decrease was found to become gradual as sliding distance further increased. The result also shows that the height decrease of the PU specimen was mainly due to the effect of the compression set and wear. In addition, the noted abrasive wear of the PU specimens was found to be significantly accelerated due to the alumina particles in lubricant, which determined a further result in 50 % faster height decrease with increasing sliding distance, as compared to the normal lubricant. The outcome of this work may provide significant and useful information for the prediction of the lifetime of a hydraulic reciprocating seal, and for the continued development of accelerated wear testing of the hydraulic reciprocating seal.