Contribution of Tin to the Strain Hardening of Self-Lubricating Sintered Al-30Sn Alloy and Its Wear Resistance under Dry Friction.

Aluminum alloys, which have been widely used in various manufacturing industries as an upper layer of bearing inserts, are alloyed with Sn to decrease the intensity of adhesive wear. A relationship between the mechanical properties, wear resistance, and structure of sintered Al-30Sn alloy containing a large amount of the soft phase was studied in this work. The above-mentioned characteristics were determined by testing the investigated material under compression and wear under dry friction in the pin-on-disk geometry at a sliding speed of 0.6 m/s and pressures of 1-5 MPa. The studied alloy was prepared by sintering of compacts consisting of a mixture of commercial powders in a vacuum furnace at a temperature of 600 °C for an hour. Then, the sintered Al-30Sn samples were subjected to processing by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) with routes A and C. It has been established that the hardening value of the alloy subjected to ECAP virtually does not depend on the Sn content, but it depends on the number of passes and the processing route. The maximum increase in the strength of the alloy was found after the first and second passes. At the fixed Sn content, its effect on the wear resistance of the alloy does not depend on the strain hardening value of the aluminum matrix.

Tribotechnical Properties of Sintered Antifriction Aluminum-Based Composite under Dry Friction against Steel.

The disadvantage of antifriction Al-Sn alloys with high tin content is their low bearing capacity. To improve this property, the aluminum matrix of the alloys was alloyed with zinc. The powder of Al-10Zn alloy was blended with the powder of pure tin in the proportion of 40/60 (wt.%). The resulting mixture of the powders was compacted in briquettes and sintered in a vacuum furnace. The sintered briquettes were subjected to subsequent pressing in the closed press mold at an elevated temperature. After this processing, the yield strength of the sintered (Al-10Zn)-40Sn composite was 1.6 times higher than that of the two-phase Al-40Sn one. The tribological tests of the composites were carried out according to the pin-on-disk scheme without lubrication at pressures of 1-5 MPa. It was established that the (Al-10Zn)-40Sn composite has higher wear resistance compared with the Al-40Sn one. However, this advantage becomes insignificant with an increase in the pressure. It was found that the main wear mechanism of the investigated composites under the dry friction process is a delamination of their highly deformed matrix grains.