Aluminium bearing alloy

Abstract

The present invention discribes an aluminium-based bearing alloy material and a bearing made therefrom, the bearing material having a composition comprising in weight%: 5-10 tin; 0.8-1.3 copper; 0.8-1.3 nickel; 1.5-3 silicon; 0.13-0.19 vanadium; 0.8-1.2 manganese; 0.4-0.6 chromium; balance aluminium apart from incidental impurities.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to aluminum-based bearing materials and plain bearing products made from said materials, in particular, but not exclusively, to fluid-lubricated engine crankshaft bearings. Background technique [0002] For example, high speed internal combustion engines have commonly used crankshaft bearings comprising copper or aluminum based bearing alloys bonded in some way to a strong substrate or base material such as steel. The actual working surface of the bearing alloy, i.e. the surface facing the crankshaft journal surface of the engine, also often has a so-called overcoat, for example a relatively soft metal alloy (e.g. lead-tin, lead-tin - thin coatings of copper or lead-indium). The purpose of this overcoat is to provide compliance and dirt entrapment properties to the bearing. Compliance is the ability of a bearing to adapt to slight mechanical misalignment between the bearing and shaft surfaces and is a measure of the cladding alloy's abilit...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Although coated bearings have some technical advantages, they also have a serious disadvantage: they are expensive to manufacture, because the coating is usually deposited by electroplating or sputter deposition, which are relatively very labor-intensive craft

However, there are still cost constraints which preclude the use of cladding coatings

Often, the two requirements of increasing fatigue strength are in conflict with maintaining or increasing wear and / or seizure resistance, with higher strength generally resulting in reduced wear / seize resistance

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