Taiho Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Yoshimi Mathuda

Kenichiro Futamura

Keiichi Iwahana

Keiiti Iwahana

The invention relates to aluminum-tin (Al-Sn) base bearing alloys and bearing materials that are made by applying the alloys to backing steel sheets by pressure welding. The Al-Sn base bearing alloy comprises 3 to 25 wt.% of Sn; 0.1 to 1.0 wt.% of Cr; 9 wt.% or less in total of one or more members of Pb, Bi, In and Cd; and the remainder of Al. The alloy can further contain 3 wt.% or less in total of Cu and/or Mg, thereby improving the bearing characteristics. Besides the effects of the addition of Cr to improve hardness, to avoid the lowering of high temperature hardness and the growth of tin particles, and the resultant improvement in fatigue resistance, the Al-Sn base bearing alloy of the invention is improved in conformability and seizure resistance by the addition of Pb, In and the like which are effective when they are used together with Cr.

Al-Sn Base bearing alloy and composite

An aluminum-base bearing alloy and a bearing material which is made by applying the bearing alloy to a backing steel by pressure welding. The aluminum-base bearing alloy is characterized in that the lowering of the hardness thereof under high temperature conditions is quite small so that the fatigue strength of the bearing alloy is quite high. The aluminum base bearing alloy comprises 10-30 wt.% of tin, 0.1-1.0 wt.% of chromium or zirconium, and the remainder of aluminum. The bearing alloy of the invention can further contain 0.2-2.0 wt.% of copper or both 0.2-2.0 wt.% of copper and 0.1-0.5 wt.% of beryllium so as to improve its properties. Especially, the aluminum-base bearing alloy containing chromium has the advantage that the tin particles contained in the alloy are prevented from becoming coarse in an annealing step or at elevated temperatures corresponding to the annealing condition. Accordingly, the lowering of the hardness under high temperature conditions can effectively be prevented, and as the result, the fatigue strength can effectively be maintained.

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Toyota, Japan

Yoshimi Mathuda