You are on page 1of 4

9

THE ANNALS OF “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ UNIVERSITY OF GALAŢI


FASCICLE VIII, 2010 (XVI), ISSN 1221-4590, Issue 1
TRIBOLOGY

THE INFLUENCE OF THE SINTERING ATMOSPHERES ON THE


WEAR BEHAVIOUR OF THE COPPER BASED ALLOYS
Stefan GHEORGHE1), Cristina TEIŞANU1),
Andreas MERSTALLINGER2), Ion CIUPITU1)
1)
University of Craiova, Faculty of Mechanics, Dept. of Technologies & Materials, ROMANIA
2)
Austrian Research Centre Seibersdorf, AUSTRIA
cteisanu@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
The Powder Metallurgy (PM) technique allows manufacturing the sintered self-
lubricating materials having a high wear resistance. It is well known that the small
and medium sized bearings are processed by PM with better characteristics than
those obtained by casting technology. The tested materials are Cu-based ones having
Sn, Zn and Pb as alloying elements in order to improve the tribological properties.
These alloys are designed to be used for manufacturing self-lubricating bearings. The
alloy compositions have been obtained by PM route, by cold die compacting, using
different pressures. The sintering atmosphere was vacuum.
The DSC is a thermo-analytical method, which allows, by measuring the
temperature difference between the sample and a reference, a quantitative
measurement of the heat flow difference when the sample and the reference are
submitted to the same temperature program.
The wear test was performed for four ring samples with a ball pin and the test
atmosphere was vacuum and normal air.

Keywords: sintered bearings, sintering atmosphere, wear behaviour, linear wear

1. INTRODUCTION Bearings made of sintered bronze are still the


most used parts in technical applications because of the
Powder Metallurgy (PM) technology allows the availability of the copper powder and their very good
control of the alloying elements content and obtaining tribological and self-lubricated properties. However, a
certain porosity, which allows the absorption of the substitution tendency of the tin powder with other
oil through the material pores; thus, the parts can chemical elements was noticed, due to very expensive
work without supplementary oil addition [1, 2, 3]. and reduced amount of tin powder. Some of those
The tested material is the alloy grade materials are CuSnZn alloys with 1% graphite.
CuSn5Zn5Pb4 without graphite, considered as a good By Powder Metallurgy technology, it is possible
antifriction sintered alloy. to obtain sintered materials for self-lubricating
The wear test was performed for ring samples bearings having a high wear resistance and a porosity
with a ball pin and the atmospheres used were ranging between 15…30%. This can be possible by
vacuum and air. The materials were tested at the different ways of driving the process cycle. The pore
Austrian Research Center Seibersdorf. volume is impregnated with oil and during the
This is a large class of materials for these bearing functioning, the oil is eliminated from pores,
bearings processing and their selection depends on forming a thin film between the bush and the shaft
the working environment, relative speed shaft- walls. As the structure is porous these materials can
bearing, specific pressure etc. The elaboration of the be used in those conditions where the oil is not
bearings by PM technique is a complex process, present. Due to these advantages, powder-metallurgy
which depends on many factors such as: the type and bearings are superior to those conventionally made,
morphology of powder particles, the chemical for many applications [4, 5].
composition of the material, the alloying method, the Therefore these materials can be used in a
compacting pressure, the sintering atmosphere, the completely dry atmosphere. But the oil from their
sintering temperature, the cooling rate etc. pores improves the antifriction behaviour.
10
THE ANNALS OF “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ UNIVERSITY OF GALAŢI
FASCICLE VIII, 2010 (XVI), ISSN 1221-4590, Issue 1
TRIBOLOGY

2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The sintering cycle is presented in Figure 1.


Due to heavy wear loadings of the bearings, it is
The tested materials are sintered copper based necessary to accomplish the wear test of their
alloys having Sn, Zn and Pb as alloying elements to materials.
which 1% graphite was added in order to improve the The wearing can be expressed as a length, an
tribological properties. These alloys are meant to be area, a volume or a weight deterioration of the
used for manufacturing self-lubricating bearings. The materials through friction process. Thus, the wearing
sintered alloys and the friction phenomena can not be separated and
CuSn5Zn5Pb4 + 1% graphite (PBM 1), one of the results is the loss of mass.
CuSn5Zn5Pb5 + 1% graphite (PBM 2), There are known a lot of wear test methods like
CuSn5Zn5Pb6 + 1% graphite (PBM 3), the macro- and micro- geometric dimensions
CuSn5Zn5Pb7 + 1% graphite (PBM 4), measurement, the weighting method, the physical or
CuSn5Zn5Pb8 + 1% graphite (PBM 5) chemical analysis of the lubricant and so on.
were structurally, mechanically and technologically A technological test particular for self-
studied. Also, tribological tests were performed in lubricating materials is the wear test developed on the
order to determine the amount of wear and the value sintered bearing or on specific samples of the
of friction coefficient [6]. requested material. Because the quality of the oil can
These materials were cold die compacted at two improve the wear resistance, the materials are
pressures, 165 MPa and 210 MPa, respectively (green indicated to be tested without oil in pores. In this case
state density = 6.9 g/cm3), values which take into the (p⋅v) value is smaller than 1.8 MPa m/s, where p
account the chemical composition of the alloys and is the pressure and v is the relative sliding speed.
the required mechanical and technological properties. The wear test was performed for the ring
The sintering atmosphere was a high vacuum samples with a ball pin and the atmosphere used was
(10-4 atm) and hydrogen. The wear test was vacuum and air. The friction coefficient values are
performed for ring samples with a ball pin and the better for vacuum test than those performed in air for
used atmosphere was vacuum and air. both samples sintered at 805°C and 815°C [7, 8]. The
The tested material is the CuSn5Zn5Pb4 alloy best value is 0.11 for the sample sintered at 815°C and
grade without graphite, considered as a good anti- tested in vacuum. The dependence of the sliding
friction sintered alloy. distance as a function of the friction coefficient shows
To perform the wear test, ring samples were a constant value after the beginning period.
obtained by PM technology with the following initial The experimental conditions are:
data: - material of ball - 100Cr6;
- material–powder mixture of CuSn5Zn5Pb4; - sliding speed of ball – 0.6m/s;
- homogenization of the mixture with Turbula - load - 1N;
device; - sliding distance - 2000 m;
- cold compaction under a pressure of 225 MPa taking account that (p⋅v) value is smaller than 1.8
(proportionally, F = 38,000 daN); MPa⋅m/s in dry friction conditions.
- sintering at two temperatures, 805°C and 815°C
in vacuum and hydrogen atmosphere.
g
900
815 815
800
720
700
720
620
600
Temperature [°C]

550 620
550
500
450

400 450
350
300
350
300
250
200 300
200 250
200
100
100
20 100 20

Time [min]

Fig. 1. Sintering cycle for vacuum and hydrogen atmosphere. T = 815°C, heating velocity = 5°C/min.
11
THE ANNALS OF “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ UNIVERSITY OF GALAŢI
FASCICLE VIII, 2010 (XVI), ISSN 1221-4590, Issue 1
TRIBOLOGY

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2.500

During the wear test there are covered all three 2.000

distinguished stages specific to wear evolution in

Linear wear [mm]


time: running in wear, normal or steady wear and 1.500
accelerated or damage wear. Calibrated-Mean

As it may be seen in diagrams depicted in 1.000


Figures 2 to 7, the wear increases rapidly in the first
stage (running-in period) and than it remains almost
constant in the steady period of functioning. 0.500

After finishing the wear test, it was noticed


that the wear value remains constant on the sliding 0.000
Distance [m]
distance of 2000 m, excepting a little increased pick 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

characterising the starting point. This is also the


moment when the friction is very intensive. At the Fig. 4. Linear wear for the ring sample sintered at
end of the wear test, the materials do not fail, being 815°C and tested in air
capable to continue the running.

1.400 1.00E+03

1.200
1.00E+02

1.000 Calibrated-Mean Wae rate


Linear wear [mm]

Calibrated-Mean 1.00E+01 [mm³/nm]


Calibrated-Mean volume mm³
0.800
Wear

0.600 1.00E+00

0.400
1.00E-01

0.200
1.00E-02
0.000 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400Distance
450 500[m]
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 Distance
450 500 [m]
Fig. 5. Calibrated mean wear rate and calibrated
Fig. 2. Linear wear for the ring sample sintered at mean volume for the ring sample sintered at 815°C
815°C and tested in vacuum and tested in air
1.00E+04 1.200

Calibrated-Mean Wae rate [mm³/nm]


1.00E+03
Calibrated-Mean volume mm³ 1.000

1.00E+02
L in e a r we a r [m m ]

0.800 Calibrated-Mean
Wear

1.00E+01
0.600

1.00E+00
0.400

1.00E-01
0.200

1.00E-02
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 Distance
450 500 [m] 0.000
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Distance400
350 [m]
Fig. 3. Calibrated mean wear rate and calibrate mean
volume for the ring sample sintered at 815°C and Fig. 6. Linear wear for the ring sample sintered at
tested in vacuum 805°C and tested in air
12
THE ANNALS OF “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ UNIVERSITY OF GALAŢI
FASCICLE VIII, 2010 (XVI), ISSN 1221-4590, Issue 1
TRIBOLOGY

1.00E+04
REFERENCES
1.00E+03 Calibrated-Mean Wae rate 1. German R.M., 1998, Sintering Theory and Practice, John
[mm³/nm]
Calibrated-Mean volume mm³
Wiley & Sons, New York.
2. Isler P.A., Nicolle J., 2001, Materiaux and Techniques, pp.
1.00E+02
10-11.
3. Teisanu C., Gheorghe St., Ciupitu I., 2005, Hardness
Wear

1.00E+01 Optimization of the Iron Base Self-Lubricating Bearings, EURO


PM2005-European Congress and Exhibition on Powder
Metallurgy, Praga, Cehia, 2-5 October, vol.2, pp. 185-190.
1.00E+00 4. Bhushan B., 1999, Principles and Applications of Tribo-
logy, Wiley, New York.
1.00E-01
5. Hutchings I.M., 1992, Tribology, Friction and Wear of
Engineering Materials, Edward Arnold, London.
6. Gheorghe S., Mangra M., Ciupitu I., Gingu O., Teisanu
1.00E-02 C., 2000, Radial crushing test of some Cu-based antifriction
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Distance
350 [m]
400 alloys using finite element method, Powder Metallurgy World
Congress, 12-16 November, Kyoto, Japan, pp.147-151.
Fig. 7. Calibrated mean wear rate and calibrated 7. Gheorghe St., Ciupitu I., Merstallinger A., Kladler G.,
mean volume for the ring sample sintered at 805°C 2004, Research regarding self-lubricating iron base alloys
processed by SPS technology, Powder Metallurgy World
and tested in air Congress, PM 2004, 17-21 October,Vienna, 4, pp. 769-774.
8. Cerit B., Yilmaz B., 2005, Third International Conference
4. CONCLUSIONS on Powder Metallurgy, RoPM 2005, 7-9 July 2005, Sinaia, 1, pp.
653-659.

The samples sintered in hydrogen atmosphere


present a very good tribological behaviour com-
parable to those from the speciality literature.
The running in period of the sintered samples
is very short, being in normal functioning quite fast.
The lowest values of the wear rate are obser-
ved at the samples sintered at 805°C and wear tested
in air.

You might also like