Online at http://ejum.fsktm.um.edu.my Vol.

1, No 1 March 2006 pp 19-26 2006 Engineering e-Transaction, University of Malaya

Optimization of Control parameters for Self-lubricating Characteristics in a Tin Base Composite

F. Yusof, M. Hameedullah and M. Hamdi Engineering Design & Manufacture Department Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia E-mail: farazila@um.edu.my

Abstract This paper analyzes the control parameters in the fabrication of a tin base composite, using Taguchi method and proposes a suitable combination of input parameters for the optimum self-lubricating characteristics of the composite. The important characteristics of the material required for self-lubricating properties are identified to be high open porosity and reasonably high density. The control parameters chosen are particles size of base material, compaction pressure, sintering temperature, sintering time, and percentage of salicylic acid added as pore forming material. An L8(27) orthogonal array design is used to plan the experimental conditions, with four replications and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) is analyzed through Pareto Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and iso-level values to arrive at the optimum combination of input parameters for the material under investigation. It has been concluded that for high overall density, coarse particle size, high compaction pressure, low sintering temperature, high sintering time and low percentage of additive are required, while for high open porosity fine particle size, low compaction pressure, high sintering temperature, low time and high percentage of additive are needed. Keywords: Powder metallurgy, tin base material, Taguchi method of DOE, Self-lubricating bearings, bearings.

Introduction

The use of self-lubricating bearings in engineering products is an attractive idea, because the bearings will not need lubrication over a long period of time. Several applications of these bearings are in automotive industries, textile machinery and ceiling fans. Presently, sintered bronze self-lubricating bearings, with tin as minor constituent, are available in the market. However self-lubricating bearings with tin as major element are not yet developed, even though tin has excellent bearing properties. This may be because of difficulty in producing the desired porosity due to softness of tin in its pure form. Timing [1] has recommended a porosity of more than 20-35 % by volume in a self-lubricating bearing, for sufficient oil to be retained in the pores in idle condition and to be seeped out when the shaft starts rotating in it. One of the ways of increasing porosity in tin base alloys/composites is by adding some pore forming materials recommended by Hausner [2]. The effect of salicylic acid addition on open porosity of sintered tin-copper-antimony compacts was studied by Shahir [3] and the effect of ammonium carbonate addition was studied by Suzy [4]. These materials increase the open porosity of the alloy/composite produced but they reduce the overall density and hardness [3-7]. Better mechanical properties along with good

porosity can be achieved if larger amount of copper is added to the tin as base metal and then the compacts sintered, resulting in metal-metal composite, because of low sintering temperature used [5-7]. Tin base bearing materials normally contain copper and antimony since they give them excellent load carrying characteristics [8]. These alloys consist of hard needle like phase of intermetallic compound of Cu6Sn5 embedded in a ductile matrix. These hard phases of inter-metallic compounds have good wear resistance and antifriction properties. Furthermore ductile matrix of tin provides toughness and sufficient ductility to allow the bearing to bed in during the running in period [1]. There is also some affinity between tin and oil, which considerably aids the tin bearing metals and allows them to run for longer periods in oil-starved conditions [8]. Eric [9] and Tham [10] studied the compacting and sintering behavior of Tin 89 % - 7.5 %, bronze- 3.5 %, and copper powders mixed with 1% stearic acid, used as lubricant. They reported a maximum sintered density of 7.3 g/cm3 and hardness 14.5 VHN, with a compaction pressure 79.6 MPa, sintering temperature 170 0C and sintering time 90 minutes. Hameedullah et al [11] reported that when this bearing material was compacted with a 98 % iron-2 % tin backing material at a compaction pressure of 687 MPa as a double layer material and sintered at 220 0C (a

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temperature lower than the melting point of tin) for 120 minutes, it gave good strength between the two materials with hardness of intermediate layer 48.2 HV; the hardness varying from 148.7 HV in the backing material layer to 15.5 HV in the bearing material. Thus, one of the ways of overcoming the problem of low load bearing capacity of porous tin base alloys may be using a backing material outer sleeve of iron alloy with 2% tin. Hameedullah and Suzy [7] reported open pore porosity of the order of 16 % with a hardness of 19.5 VHN for a metal-metal composite with 51% tin, 40 % copper and 8 % antimony with the addition of 2 % ammonium carbonate, but the overall density recorded was 5.8 g/cm3 (i.e. 78 % of the theoretical density). The objective of the present work is to find out optimum combination of input parameters to get highest open porosity in a tin base metal-metal composite with 70 wt% tin- 20wt % copper and 10wt % antimony, with a good overall density, and porosity using salicylic acid as the pore forming agent.

Input

Process

Output

Control

Noise factors Particle size distribution, Oxidation of the test specimen, Thickness variation of the specimen, Quality of

f
Particle size, Compaction pressure, Sintering temperature, Sintering time, % of additive,

Quality Ch t i ti Density (g/cc) (larger the better characteristic), Porosity (larger the better characteristic),

Fig 1

Factor-characteristic relation diagram

Experimental Investigations

Table 1 Level settings of controllable factors Parameter Low High Level Level (0) (1) A: Tin particles size (mesh) -100 -325 B: Compaction pressure (MPa) 156 312 140 220 C: Sintering temperature (C) D: Sintering time (min) 30 60 E: Additive (salicylic acid) 1% 2%

2.1 Planning of experimental runs Taguchis parameter design [12] is used to plan the experimental conditions. The controllable factors expected to affect the porosity and overall density of the material are; Tin powder particle size (A), Compaction pressure (B), Sintering temperature (C), Sintering time (D) and Pore forming agent (Salicylic acid) (E). The noise factors are identified as the particle size distribution, powder particles surface oxidation, thickness variation of the specimens and quality of pore forming agent etc. Factor- characteristic relation diagram is shown in Figure 1. The control factors at high and low level are given in Table 1. The higher and lower levels of these factors are designated by numerical symbols 1 and 0 respectively in Table 2. As only five control factors are under study and one of interaction effect is assumed, an internal orthogonal array with seven columns is found to be suitable and hence L8(27) is chosen for planning the experimental runs. Since it was difficult to adjust the noise factors at two extreme conditions, four replications are used under each set of experimental conditions to eliminate the effect of noise factors. This design is shown in Table 2. Actual experimental conditions in different runs are reproduced in Table 3 from Table 1 and 2. Table 2 Planning of experimental conditions based on L8(27) orthogonal array design Exp. no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Basic marks Assign ment of factor s 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 a A 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 b B Column number 3 4 5 6 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 ab c ac bc C D E e Condition 7 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 abc BxE
A0B0C0D0E0 A0B0C0D1E1 A0B1C1D0E0 A0B1C1D1E1 A1B0C1D0E1 A1B0C1D1E0 A1B1C0D0E1 A1B1C0D1E0

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Table 3 Actual experimental conditions in different experimental runs

Exp No. Particle size (mesh) Compacti on Pressure (MPa) Sinter ing Temp (C) Sinter ing time (min) Additi ve (%)

Table 4 Density (g/cc) of specimens in four replications of different experimental runs and their S/N ratios
Exp. Run No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 y1 6.60 6.43 6.73 6.38 5.94 6.37 6.23 6.62 y2 6.41 6.78 6.74 6.37 5.82 6.60 6.07 6.64 y3 6.57 6.63 6.76 6.66 5.81 6.47 6.15 6.62 y4 6.40 6.37 6.74 6.50 5.83 6.37 6.10 6.57 S/N ratio 16.247 16.317 16.575 16.222 15.339 16.195 15.761 16.406 16.133

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

-100 -100 -100 -100 -325 -325 -325 -325

156 156 312 312 156 156 312 312

140 140 220 220 220 220 140 140

30 60 30 60 30 60 30 60

1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1

2.1 Experimental procedure Tin powders of -325 mesh (< 44m) and -100 mesh (150m) were blended in Pascal ball mill with copper powder -100 mesh (150m), acicular antimony powder with -100 mesh (150m) and salicylic acid in the planned proportions for 6 hours as mentioned in Table 3. Cylindrical specimens with a size of 20 x 5 mm were compacted under different pressures given in Table 3. Single action pressing was done for all the compacts. The specimens were sintered in a tube furnace at temperatures and for the time periods given in Table 3 in different experimental runs. A heating rate of 2.5C min-1 was used for all the specimens. The experimental runs were repeated four times each. The specimens were weighed on an electronic balance and the dimensions measured with a vernier caliper and density was determined for each specimen. For determining porosity of open pores, hot water was impregnated into the pores for several hours till the weight of specimens became constant. The volume of impregnated water gave the volume of open pores. Percentage porosity was determined by dividing this volume with the actual volume of the specimens. The results are tabulated as shown in Tables 4 and 5.

Average of S/N Ratio

Table 5 Porosity (%) of specimens in four replications of different experimental runs and their S/N ratios
Exp. Run No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 y1 4.13 4.77 5.70 7.87 12.90 8.27 6.71 4.28 y2 5.66 4.27 5.06 8.75 13.36 17.01 14.98 4.91 y3 7.56 6.30 6.23 8.76 14.39 8.64 15.66 6.45 y4 9.44 5.23 4.97 8.32 13.37 15.64 12.97 4.28 S/N ratio 15.281 13.964 14.683 18.486 22.589 20.511 20.375 13.598 17.44

Average of S/N Ratio

Experimental Results and discussions

3.1 Density and porosity of sintered specimen The concept of signal to noise (S/N) ratio, given by Taguchi (12), is used to eliminate the effect of noise factors, rather than eliminating the noise factors themselves. For better performance of self-lubricating bearings the open porosity is to be high, so that sufficient oil is retained in the pores during the idle period and it comes out when the shafts rotates in it, so that the bearing is lubricated. The bearing shall also have high density to exhibit good load bearing capacity. Any

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product made of conventional powder metallurgy technique has two types of pores. Interconnecting pores extend to the surface are called open pores. The pores that are within the body and do not extend to the surface are called closed pores. In a self-lubricating bearing the higher the open pores the better will be the performance. The porosity due to closed pores shall be minimum, so that density remains high and hence the load bearing capacity of the bearing. Therefore, larger-the better characteristic is chosen for determining the S/N ratios both for open pores porosity and the density. These S/N ratios are analyzed using iso-level values and Pareto Analysis of Variance Technique to get the optimum combination of process parameters for high porosity and density of the test specimens. The following equation is used for estimating S/N ratio for larger-the-better characteristic. S/N = - 10 log (1/n 1/yi2)
i=1 n

percentage of salicylic acid addition is favorable. The density value reported for self-lubricating bronze bearings is 6.4 to 6.8 g/cc [14]. Under some set of input parameters the same level of density is achieved for the present material (6.47 g/cc), but the average open porosity has gone down to a very low value (8.4 %). A maximum of 13.3 % porosity is attained with a density of 8.54 g/cc in the present investigations. Retaining the density at 6.4-6.8 g/cc with further increase in open porosity requires the reduction of the close porosity. Further investigations are needed to achieve this objective. Some other optimization technique is to be used that puts a constraint on the density and hardness while optimizing the porosity.

Conclusions

Where n is the number of replicates and yi is the observed value of the data. In this experiment the value of n is four since there are four replications. Kim et al [13] proposed a method for finding out the optimum level of each factor under study. According to this method, the optimum level of each factor will be that at which the average of the iso-level value of S/N ratio is maximum. The average iso-level value is determined from the values of S/N ratios at low and high levels of the factors. For example the average S/N ratio for density at low level of factor A is determined from experimental runs 1, 2, 3 and 4 and for high level from experimental runs 5, 6, 7 and 8. Similarly for other factors these iso-levels values are determined and recorded in Table A-1. Similarly the average iso-level SN ratios for porosity are recorded in Table A-2. From Table A-1 one can see that the optimum combination of input parameters for highest density is A0 B1C0D1E0 and from Table A-2 it is observed that the optimum combination of these parameters for porosity is A1B 0C1D0E1. The Pareto Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) applied to this data (Table A-3 and Table A-4) gives the same optimum level of controllable factors as the isolevel technique applied above. Thus, it can be concluded that for getting high density, large tin particle size (low mesh size), high compaction pressure, low sintering temperature, large sintering time and low percentage of salicylic acid is required. For high open porosity small tin particle size (high mesh size), low compaction pressure, high sintering temperature, low sintering time and high

The following conclusions are drawn from the present work. 1. Similar optimum conditions were obtained from iso-level S/N ratio value technique as with Pareto ANOVA. 2. The above two techniques give optimum setting of parameters for highest value of some response, without putting any constraint on other responses. Therefore, some other better optimization technique shall be used. 3. For getting high density, large tin particle size (low mesh size), high compaction pressure, low sintering temperature, large sintering time and low percentage of salicylic acid is required. For high open porosity small tin particle size (high mesh size), low compaction pressure, high sintering temperature, low sintering time and high percentage of salicylic addition is favorable.

5. Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Sultan Iskandar Johor Foundation for funding this research.

References
[1]. R.L Timings, Manufacturing Technology, volume 2, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, ch. 2, 1993. Henry H.Hausner, Handbook of Powder Metallurgy, Chemical Publishing Co.Inc, New York, pp-20, 146,434-441, 1973.

[2].

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[3].

[4].

[5].

[6].

[7].

[8].

[9].

[10].

[11].

[12].

[13].

Mohd. Shahir, Investigating the methods of improving the porosity of tin base sintered bearing alloy, B.Eng. Thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia, 2003. Suzy Aida, Effect of Ammonium Carbonate on Porosity in Tin base Materials, B.Eng Thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia, 2004. F. Yusof, and M. Hameedullah, Preliminary Investigations on the Development of Self-lubricating Bearings in Tin Base Alloys, Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing Technology(ICAMT2004), Kuala Lumpur, pp 844-850, 2004. Suzy Aida, M. Fadzil and M. Hameedullah, Effect of Ammonium Carbonate on Porosity of Tin Based Bearing Alloys, Accepted for Oral Presentation and Publication in Proceedings of the 2004 International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition (IMECE) , Kuwait, December 5-8, 2004. M. Hameedullah and Suzy Aida, Some Characteristics of Tin Base Metal-Metal Matrix Composites for Bearing Application, Accepted for Oral Presentation and Publication in Conference Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Materials Processing (ICAMP-3), Melbourne, 2004. Robert B. Ross, Metallic Materials Specification Handbook, Fourth Edition, Chapman & Hall, London, pp94, 181, 588, 590, 1992. Erick Phan Tze Wei, A study of green properties of multi-layered powder compacts of tin base bearing metal, B.Eng Thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia, 2002. Tham Leck Seng), A study on the sintering of double layered self -lubricating bearings, B.Eng Thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia, 2002. Hameedullah, M., Abdul Maleque, Eric P.T. Wei and Tham, L. Sing, Self-Lubricating Bearings in Tin Base Alloys, Proceedings, Seminar PJP 2003, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, Paper No. 14, p 6, 2003 S.H Park, Robust Design and Analysis for Quality Engineering, Chapman & Hall, London, 1996. S.T Kim, M.S Park, H.M Kim, Systematic Approach for evaluation of the optimal fabrication conditions of a H2S gas sensor with Taguchi method, Journal of sensor and Actuators, vol . 102, pp 253-260. 2004

[14]. http://www.reliablebronze.com/metalBearin gs.html

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Appendix 1
Table A-1 Average iso-level SN ratio values for density (g/cc) Factors Low Level (0) 16.340 16.025 16.183 15.981 16.356 16.054 16.106 High Level (1) 15.925 16.241 16.083 16.285 15.910 16.212 16.159 Difference

A Tin particles size B Compaction pressure C Sintering temperature D Sintering time E Additive F Error column G Interaction BxE Table A-2

0.415 0.217 0.100 0.305 0.446 0.159 0.053

Average iso-level SN ratio values for porosity Factors Low Level (0) 15.604 18.086 15.805 18.232 16.018 17.489 18.663 High Level (1) 19.268 16.786 19.067 16.640 18.854 17.383 16.209 Difference

A Tin particles size B Compaction pressure C Sintering temperature D Sintering time E Additive F Error column G Interaction BxE

3.665 1.301 3.263 1.592 2.835 0.105 2.455

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Table A-3

Pareto ANOVA analysis for density

Factor and interactions

BxE

Total

Sum at factor level

65.361

64.098

64.731

63.922

65.423

64.214

64.425 sum of 0,1 level = 129.062

1 Difference at 2 levels

63.701

64.964

64.331

65.140

63.639

64.848

64.637

1.660 Square of difference 2.7556 Contribution ratio (%)

0.866

0.4

1.218

1.784

0.634

0.212

0.7500

0.1600

1.4835

3.1827

0.402

0.0449

8.7786

31.39
40 35 30 25 20 1 5 1 0 5 0

8.54
36.25

1.82

16.90

36.25

4.579

0.51

100.00

31 .39

1 .9 6 8.54 4.58 182 . 0.51

Pareto Diagram Factor and interactions Cumulative contribution ratio (%) Optimum combination of significant factor levels Remarks E 36.25 A 67.64 D 84.54 B 93.08 e 97.66 C 99.480 BxE 100.00

E0A0D1B1 The significant factors are chosen from the left hand side in the above Pareto diagram which cumulatively contribute about 90% A0 = particles size, -100mesh

Overall optimum conditions for all factors

B1 = compaction pressure, 312MPa C0 = sintering temperature,140C D1 = sintering time, 60min E0 = additive, 1 wt% salicylic acid

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Table A-4

Pareto ANOVA analysis for porosity

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