Bearing Alloys

Need for bearings?

The concept behind a bearing is very simple: Things roll better than they slide. The wheels on your car are like big bearings. If you had something like skis instead of wheels, your car would be a lot more difficult to push down the road. Bearing are the devices used to support moving parts.

Loads acting on bearing

Giant ball bearings

The new San Francisco International Airport uses many advanced building technologies to help it withstand earthquakes.

Requirements of bearing material

Bearing Materials

Bearing Materials
Tin Lead based alloys ( Babbitts) Copper based alloys ( Brasses and Bronzes) Aluminium based alloys Cast iron

White Bearing Materials

Either tin-base or lead-base. The former represents the better-quality highduty white metals, are known as Babbitt metals, named after Isaac Babbitt their originator. All white bearing metals contain between 3.5 and 15 % antimony, and much of this combines chemically with some of the tin, giving rise to an intermediate compound SbSn.

 This forms cubic crystals (cuboids), which are easily identified in the microstructure. These cuboids are hard, and have low-friction properties, consequently, they contribute the necessary bearing surface in white metals. In the interest of economy, some of the tin is generally replaced by lead. The lead-rich white metals are intended for lower duty, since they can withstand only limited pressure.

White Bearing Metals

Microstructure of White Bearing Material

Aluminium-tin alloys
Aluminium-tin alloys containing 20% tin are now used as main and big-end bearings in automobile design. Aluminium and tin form a eutectic containing 0.5 % aluminium so that the final structure of these bearings consists of an aluminium network containing small areas of soft eutectic tin which wears and so assists lubricant flow. Because of the long freezing range of this alloy, segregation is a danger so that the cast material is usually cold rolled and annealed to break up the eutectic leaving small islands of tin in aluminium matrix.

Copper base bearing metals

Include plain tin bronzes (10-15% tin) and phosphor bronzes (10-13% tin, 0.3-10% phosphorus). Some of the tin and copper combine to form particles of a very hard intermetallic compound CU31Sn7 , whilst the remainder of the tin dissolves in the copper to form a tough solid solution matrix. These alloys are widely used for bearings when heavy loads are to be carried.

Leaded Bronzes
Used in the manufacture of main bearings in aero-engines and for automobile and diesel crankshaft bearings. They have very high-wear resistance and a good thermal conductivity, which helps in cooling them during operation. Brasses are sometimes used as low-cost bearing materials. They are generally of a low-quality 60-40 type, containing up to 1% each of aluminium, iron and manganese