UNIT-8 BEARING MATERIALS

SYLLABUS:

General Requirements of Bearing Materials; Types of bearing materials.

PREVIOUS QUESTIONS:

1. Listout various materials used for bearings. Explain their merits and
demerits

2. Listout different bearing materials used in industry. What are

advantages and disadvantages of these materials. Make a comparitive
note.

3. Explain in detail the general requirements of bearing material.

4. a) What are the general requirements of bearing materials.

b) Write a short note on:
i) Babbit material
ii) Bronze
iii) Cast Iron
iv) Silver

5. Write about the suitable materials used for bearings.

6. a) What are the general requirements of bearing materials?

b) What are the types of bearing materials? Explain them in detailed.

Note: This is the easiest of all units. So please do prepare well as this unit
doesn`t take much time.All the best.
 1. General requirements of Bearing Materials:
When bearings are operated properly (i.e. no metal-to-metal contact), any pair of
materials can be used as bearing materials provided they have enough strength
to support the applied load and their instability to be machined. Unfortunately
most of the bearings (fluid film bearings) donot always operate under the
idealized condition. There will be always some amount of rubbing between the
surfaces during starting and stopping when adequate fluid film pressure will not
be developed.

In some situations bearing operates under a heavy load or with too low speed to
generate pressures that are not adequate to support load avoiding metal-to-
metal contact. In addition to the above, following might also be the reason for
metal-to-metal contact

The shaft and the bearing surfaces are not smooth enough to avoid contact,

There may be misalignment between the journal and the bearing,

The lubricant supply may be inadequate for forming required fluid film.

Due to the above reasons, there is a possibility of contact between the surfaces
having relative motion under load. As bearings operate under various conditions,
a particular material will never satisfy all the requirements of bearing material.
Hence the selection of bearing material is a matter of judgement.

2. Properties of bearing Materials:

• Low co-efficient of friction.

• Should be able to provide hard and wear resistant surface and a tough
core.

• High compressive strength

• High Fatigue strength

• Higher thermal conductivity

• Higher corrosion resistance

• Ability to detrain under bearing load.

• High strength elevated temperature.

• Softer than shaft material

• Should be able to rotation lubricating oil.

 3. Bearing Materials:

1. Lead based alloys (babbits)

Composition :-

75% Pb ; 15% Sb ; 10% sn

– Softer, brittle, have slightly higher coefficient of friction than Tin based
alloys.

– Cheaper, Good corrosion resistance, Good conformability to Journal.

Suitable for low and medium loads.

• Microsh of babbit contains hard such cuboids of sn-sb in a soft matrix of

eutectic Needless of cusu etc…may be part.

• Solidness temperature is 2400C

Applications : Rail road flight cars

2. Tin based alloys (babbits):

Tin is nontoxic , soft , pliable metal –Cold worked, low melting point, high
boiling point

Composition :

88% Sn ; 8% (sh) 4% (cu)

• Softer, low coefficient of friction

• Good corrosion resistance, Good conformability to journal.

• Used for high speeds and high loads

Applications : High speed engines, stream turbine.

**Babbitt or whitemetal bearing materials represent a class of alloys developed

specifically for bearing applications. Their use has been largely for hydrodynamic
journal bearings - especially in automotive engines. The constitutuents in these
alloys have been chosen to provide a bearing surface that will conform to
misalignment, embed dirt and, in case of interruption of
lubricant, will melt or flow to limit shaft damage. Materials chosen for this
application include lead, tin, cadmium, aluminum and silver. Zinc alloys, not as
common, are used for inexpensive bearings.
 3. Cadmium based Alloys :-

Composition:- 98% cd , 1% Ag, 1% cu

• Structure contains soft matrix with hard crystals of into metallic

compounds

• Higher compressive strength than Tin based alloys.

• Higher fatigue resistance.

• Higher load carrying capacity

• Poor corrosion resistance

Application: Automobile and Aircraft industries.Applications are limited due to

higher cost of cadmium.

4. Aluminum based alloys :

Composition: 91.5% (Al) ; 6.5% (Su) :1% cu , 1% Ni

• These are two phased alloys.

• Excellent corrosion resistance

• Fair Conformability to Journal

• Good thermal conductivity.

Applications: As living a steal bearings. Diesel engines and tractors.

5. Silver based Alloys :

• Produced by electro deposition on steel shell.

(0.5 mm thick as layer and over it 0.02 to 0.03 mm film of lead and indium
is deposited.)

• High priced bearing alloy

• Used where other materials do not give good results.

Applications : Connecting rod bearings of Aircraft engine.

6. Copper-based Alloys : (Bronze)

– Can be cold worked

 – Reasonably hard

Composition: 80% cu, 10% su , 10% ph

Applications : For making bearing required to resist pressure such as in

railways.

7. Sintered bearing materials :

Composition : Cu powder with 8 to 10% Sn and 1 to 3% graphite.

Non-metallic bearing materials:

TEFLOW :

• Low coefficient of friction < 0.04 without lubrication

• Good stability at elevated temperature

• Chemically inert to polar solvents.

NYLON:

• Have coefficient & friction 0.09 to 0.15 depending on lubricating condition.

Applications: Food processing, Textile.

Grey Cast iron:

• Used in refrigeration compressors, railways

Porous and self lubricated bearings:

• Manufactured by powder metallurgy technique.

• Have around 40% porosity.

90% cu, 10% su and graphite

96% Fe and graphite.

1. High/Mid Carbon alloy steel :

• Can be hardened to a greater deputy

 Eg : High carbon chromium steel

• For large types of bearings induction hardened bearing steel with

manganese or molybdemium is used.

• Medium carbon chromium steel with silicon and manganese.

2. Case Hardened steel:

• Case hardened steel, as a bearing material, got excellent shock

resistance.

• All tapered R roller bearings are made of this steel.

• Ni-Cr-Mo steel is used for large sized bearings

• Chromium steel and crome-molybderium steel is used for small to medium

sized bearings.

3. Heat Resistant bearing steel:

• Silicon is added to steel to improve heat resistance with improved rolling

fatigue life. Operating temperatures are 150 to 2500C

• High speed “w” steel and High speed molybdenum steel also can be used.

4. Corrosion resistant bearing steel:

Chrome added to martens tic stainless steel is used.

**Additional study:

TYPES OF SOFT METAL BEARINGS:

Lead and Tin based babbitts

Aluminum-tin bearing metals
Mu1ti -layer steel backed ha1 f round bearings
Gold, Silver and Indium plating
Zinc-aluminum bearing metals

APPLICATIONS FOR SOFT METAL BEARING MATERIALS:

Crank and main bearings for internal combustion engines

Crank and main bearings for reciprocating compressors
Engine camshaft bearings
Electric motor bearings
Gearbox and transmission bearings
Pi1 low blocks
Railroad car axle bearings
Gearbox thrust washer
Wear plates in gear and piston pumps
Thrust bearing tilting pads

TYPES OF COPPER BASE BEARING MATERIALS

Tin Bronzes - cast

Phosphor Bronzes - wrought
Leaded Bronzes - cast
Copper lead - cast
Beryllium Copper - cast
Aluminum Bronzes - cast

APPLICATIONS FOR COPPER BASE BEARING MATERIALS

Heavily loaded, slow moving j o u r n a l bearings f o r heavy machinery

Gears
Airframe bearings
Seals
Springs
Pump bearings
Non sparking contacts
Marine hardware
Nonmagnetic bearings