Daido Metal Company Ltd.

Ryo Sato

Kazuaki Toda

Satoru Kurimoto

Kentaro Tujimoto

Takuo Imai

A thrust bearing for a turbocharger of an internal-combustion engine is made of a copper alloy including a brass matrix and a needle-like Mn&#x2014;Si-based compound dispersed in the brass matrix. Not less than 50% of the needle-like Mn&#x2014;Si-based compound dispersed in a region from a surface of a sliding portion of the thrust bearing to a depth of 50 &#x3bc;m have a major axis extending from the inside of the sliding portion to the surface. The major axis makes an angle of 30&#xb0; to 150&#xb0; with the surface of the sliding portion when observed in a sectional view perpendicular to the surface of the sliding portion.

Thrust bearing for turbocharger of internal-combustion engine

In a copper-based sliding material in which a Cu alloy layer contains 5% to 30% by mass of Bi, and the balance consisting of Cu and an unavoidable impurity, Bi is dispersed as particles of a Bi phase in the Cu alloy layer, and the mass ratio of the particles having a particle size of 2 to 50 &#x3bc;m and a circularity of 0.1 to 0.7 is 30% or more in the entire Bi phase in the Cu alloy layer, so that the particles of the Bi phase are uniformly dispersed in the Cu alloy layer. Therefore, the particles of the Bi phase in the Cu alloy layer are sequentially exposed to a sliding surface as wear of the sliding material progresses while excessive flow-out of molten Bi is prevented, so that improved seizure resistance is achieved.

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Inuyama, Japan

Ryo Sato