Patent ID: 8920916

Claim:
A method of producing a sliding member including a porous body that is a sintered body of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene particles and having a surface of the porous body as a sliding surface, the method comprising: a first step of sintering a mixture that comprises conductive fine particles and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene particles to obtain the sintered body of the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene particles that comprises the conductive fine particles; a second step of cutting the sintered body to form a surface serving as the sliding surface and to obtain a porous body having the surface; and a third step of heating the porous body having the surface to make the surface of the porous body serving as the sliding surface smoother than before the heating, wherein the porous body obtained in the second step has a particle occupation ratio of 50% or less, and a surface roughness Ra of the surface of the porous body obtained in the second step exceeds 2.0 μm, the particle occupation ratio being a ratio of a plane area occupied by the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene particles to the total plane area in the porous body at a depth of 20 μm from an outermost surface of the porous body defined as a top of the particles, in the third step, the surface of the porous body serving as the sliding surface is smoothed by heating and being in contact with a surface of a metal plate or a resin plate, while the surface of the porous body is pressed against the surface of the plate, and after the third step, the particle occupation ratio is maintained at 50% or less, and the surface has the surface roughness Ra of 2.0 μm or less.