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a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 16 February 2009
Accepted in revised form 12 May 2009
Available online 21 May 2009
Keywords:
Steel backed bearing strip
AlSnSiCu bearing strip
Fretting
Friction
Wear
Spray deposition
Rolling
a b s t r a c t
In various load bearing structural applications related to automotive industries, steel backed aluminum alloy
strips are considered. For such applications, it is desired to design appropriate alloy composition for metallic
strip so that good tribological properties can be achieved. In our ongoing efforts to accomplish this aim, we have
recently fabricated a steel backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu bearing strip, which is prepared by spray depositing the
molten bearing alloy on a steel substrate, followed by warm rolling of the resulting laminated strip to different
thickness reductions up to 80%. The tribological performance of the steel backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu strips is
evaluated against the bearing steel. While the recorded steady state coefcient of friction (COF) does not show
any noticeable difference (varying in the range of 0.60.7) with respect to difference in warm rolling
conditions, the fretting wear rate (1026 10 5 mm3 N 1m 1) of the steel backed and warm rolled strips
exhibits a systematic decrease in wear rate with increase in amount of warm rolling. SEM-EDS analyses reveal
the oxidative wear and the extensive cracking of alumina rich tribolayer as the dominant material removal
mechanisms. The tribological properties of the spray deposited and 80% rolled steel backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu
bearing strip is compared with those of a commercially available AlSn based sleeve bearing under identical
fretting conditions.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Bimetallic strips are generally used for making bearings for the
crankshaft of an internal combustion engine. Such a bimetallic strip
consists of a bearing layer, which is metallurgically bonded to a
supporting steel strip. Two approaches are widely adopted for preparing such bimetallic strips. The rst and the original approach is
based on powder metallurgy. It consists of spreading a powder mass of
the chosen bearing alloy over a steel strip surface, which is subsequently heated to a suitable temperature in protective atmosphere
to bring about sintering between powder mass and supporting steel
strip. The sintered composite strip is subsequently rolled and heat
treated to produce a dense layer of the bearing alloy metallurgically
bonded with the supporting steel strip. The second approach consists
of preparing a thin strip of the chosen bearing alloy by casting or
powder metallurgy, and subsequently the strip is roll bonded to form
the bimetallic strip.
There has been a development in the above mentioned rst
approach for preparing bimetallic strip, wherein liquid or semi-liquid
For each spray atomization run, the mass of melt was 250 gm. The
molten Al10Sn4Si1Cu alloy was atomized, using air jets at a
plenum pressure of 18 kg cm 2 in a free fall atomizer. The steel strip
substrate of size 380 mm 80 mm 1 mm was kept at a distance of
450 mm below the bottom of the melting furnace. Prior to deposition,
the surface of the steel strip substrate was shot blasted with SiC
particles. The centre of the substrate coincided with the central axis of
the melt delivery tube. The substrate was held rmly by placing heavy
weight at both the ends. A sample of size 20 mm 75 mm was taken
from both ends of the spray deposited steel backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu
strip for rolling. This had a thickness of the deposit as 1 0.2 mm. The
steel backed spray deposited Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip samples were
rolled at 200 C on a single strand, non-reversing type two-high
rolling mill having 135 mm diameter rolls. Such a rolling process has
been referred to warm rolling (WR) in the present paper. Before
rolling, samples were heated at 200 C for 45 min in nitrogen
atmosphere. The reheating furnace and warm rolling furnace were
interconnected in such a manner that the strips were in the nitrogen
atmosphere right up to the nip of the rolls. The laminated composite
Al10Sn4Si1Cu strips were rolled to 20, 40, 60, and 80% reduction
in total thickness and annealed at 200 C for 45 min. Prior to the wear
test, the microstructure of the steel backed spray deposited Al10Sn
4Si1Cu bearing strip was investigated by X-ray diffraction (SEIFERT
ISO DEBYEFLIEX 2002 X-ray diffraction machine) using Cu K radiation ( = 0.154059 nm) and optical microscope (ZEISS, Axioskop 2
MAT).
3543
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of spray atomization and deposition set-up (a) and fretting wear test set-up (b).
rolling is given in Table 1. It can be seen that the porosity in the bearing
layer is decreased with increased percentage of warm rolling. The
porosity after 80% warm rolling is ~ 0.5%. A representative optical
microscopy image of 80% rolled is provided in Fig. 2(a).
In order to illustrate the phase assemblage of the thin bearing strip, a
representative XRD plot of the 80% rolled sample is provided in Fig. 2(b).
While the strong peaks of Al matrix and Sn precipitates are recorded, the
minor peaks from the second phases, e.g. Si and Al2O3 are also observed.
The formation of any reaction phases is not observed within the
detectable limit of the XRD unit under the present condition.
Table 1
Percent porosity and specic wear rate of spray deposited Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip as a
function of percent warm rolling (WR).
S. no.
Sample
% Porosity
COF
1
2
3
4
5.
Al10Sn4Si1Cu,20%WR
Al10Sn4Si1Cu,40%WR
Al10Sn4Si1Cu,60%WR
Al10Sn4Si1Cu,80%WR
Ind-C (Al14Sn),as received
10.5
3.7
1.2
0.5
0.66
0.68
0.61
0.63
0.75
26
22
16
10
18
3.3. Worn surface topography of the spray deposited warm rolled steel
backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip
Detailed microstructural investigation using SEM-EDS was carried
out on the worn surfaces of warm rolled steel backed Al10Sn4Si
1Cu spray deposit to understand the mechanism governing the
fretting wear. Fig. 5(a) displays the overall topographical features of
the worn scar formed on the surface of the 20% warm rolled Al10Sn
4Si1Cu spray deposit strip after 20,000 cycles under 1N load for
100 m linear amplitude and 4 Hz frequency against bearing grade
steel ball. It is clear from Fig. 5(a) that the entire surface is covered
with the tribochemical layer with different topographical contrast.
The details of such layer can be seen with more clarity in Fig. 5(b). The
extensive cracking can be seen both along the fretting direction as well
as perpendicular to the fretting direction. Also the cracking has been
found to be more severe near the central region of the worn surface.
No evidence of abrasion or plastic ow can be seen. EDS compositional
analysis of multiple areas of the worn surface reveals that the
tribochemical layer is essentially alumina rich. Also the intensity of the
Fe-peak appears to be very weak essentially indicating insignicant
Fig. 2. Optical micrograph of steel backed and 80% warm rolled Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip
(a) and XRD plot of steel backed and 80% warm rolled Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip.
Fig. 3. Coefcient of friction of spray deposited (SD) steel backed 80% thickness reduction,
and commercial sleeve bearing Ind-C, as a function of number of cycles.
3545
with Fig. 6(b) however conrms that the severity of fretting induced
damage is noticeably reduced as the percent warm rolling increased
from 40 to 60%.
Fig. 8(a) and (b) show typical SEM images, showing overall
topography of worm surfaces of the metallic strip with the highest
percent warm rolling (80%). The worn surface exhibits even much less
cracking induced damage mechanism [see brighter contrast area in
Fig. 8(a)]. The major part of the worn surface is however covered with
tribolayer. Also, signicant amount of ner and agglomerated debris
particles are observed in the regions, adjacent to the edges of wear
scar. Like in other cases, the amount of Fe transfer to worn surface is
minimum.
From the above observations, it should be clear that oxidative
wear and cracking of the tribochemical layer are the major wear
Fig. 4. Specic wear rate of Al10Sn4Si1Cu as function of percent warm rolling (a)
and percent porosity (b).
The EDS analysis of the bearing layer showed that it was basically
aluminum-based, having approximately 1415 wt.% tin as the major
alloying element. Fig. 3 also plots the continuously recorded
coefcient of friction of the Ind-C material. During the initial
1000 cycles, the COF rises to a high value of 0.8, and thereafter, it
attains a steady state value. The steady state COF varies in the narrow
range of 0.70.8, having an average value of 0.75. The specic wear
rate of the Ind-C material was found to be 18 10 5 mm3 N 1m 1. It
can be seen that the COF value and the specic wear rate of the Ind-C
material is greater than that of the spray deposited and 80% warm
rolled steel backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip (containing 0.5% porosity)
used in the present study. The corresponding value of average COF and
specic wear rate were 0.63 and 10 10 5 mm3 N 1m 1 respectively
(Table 1).
Fig. 9(a) shows representative SEM image of the overall topography
of the worn surface formed on the Ind-C material after 20,000 cycles
3547
The present work demonstrates that suitable alloy design approach can enable us to develop better metallic strip of Al10Sn4Si
1Cu composition having a lower of COF of 0.63. From the aspect of real
applications, any tribological material experiencing lower friction is
always preferred. This is due to the fact that the dissipated energy will
be lower in case of material combinations with lower COF and as a
result, lower energy needs to be supplied from external source to
maintain relative motion at the tribological interface. On the basis of
the present study, it should be clear that the WR-80 sample should be
preferred over commercial sleeve bearing alloy (Ind-C sample) for
given automotive applications. This will ensure longer durability coupled with energy savings as well as from economic aspect (less frequent replacement).
The advantage for the use of Al10Sn4Si1Cu alloy over the Al10Sn
alloy produced via the same processing route can also be mentioned
from the processing aspect. From the manufacturing aspect, the addition
of Si enhances the uidity of the melt and thereby ensures a more dense
spray deposit of the bearing layer on the steel substrate. As a result, steel
backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu bearing alloy strip will require less amount of
warm rolling for achieving near full density in the bearing layer as
compared to steel backed Al10Sn bearing alloy strip produced under
identical condition of spray deposition and rolling.
4. Conclusions
In the present work, the steel backed and warm rolled Al10Sn
4Si1Cu metallic strips were fretted against bearing steel. Based on
our experimental observations, the following conclusions are drawn:
a. No signicant difference in terms of the frictional behavior was
observed, when the metallic strips, warm rolled to varying thickness reductions of up to 80%, were subjected to fretting wear
against steel. Independent of warm rolling conditions, the steady
state COF varies in the narrow window of 0.60.7.
b. The specic wear rate decreases in a systematic linear manner
with percentage warm rolling of spray atomized layer. The wear
rate of 80% warm rolled steel backed Al10Sn4Si1Cu strip was
found to be 10 10 5 mm3.N 1.m 1.
c. The tribooxidation is the dominant wear mechanism and the
formation of alumina rich tribolayer is observed irrespective of
warm rolling conditions. The cracking of tribolayer and signicant