Improvement in the performance of journal bearings by using lead-free bearing material and surface texturing

The lead contents in the journal bearing material has some harmful effects on environment. For eliminating it, two lead-free bearing material has been proposed. Aluminium-nickel-copper (Al-C) and phosphorous-aluminium-copper (Ph-C) materials were fabricated and the tribological properties of the fabricated material were evaluated with the help of a pin on disc setup with fully flooded, starved and unlubricated conditions. Surface texturing on the interior surface of the bearing was also utilised to further improve the performance of the journal bearing. It was revealed that Ph-C material exhibits the lowest amount of specific wear rate (SWR) and friction coefficient as compared to the conventional lead bronze (Pb-C) material. There was a 45%-50% improvement in SWR and 30%-70% in frictional coefficient. With considering the surface texturing on the bearing surface there was an improvement of 2.7%-13.5% in the average friction torque as compared to the non-textured bearing.