Dry wear behavior of ultra-high strength Cu-10Ni-3Al-0.8Si alloy

Cu-10Ni-3Al-0.8Si alloy exhibited desirable physical and mechanical properties and wear resistance for bearing applications. An electrical conductivity of 18.1% IACS, hardness of 309.3 HV, tensile strength of 1004.2 MPa, coefficient of friction of 0.58 and volume wear rate of 4.69×10-6 mm3/mm were obtained with over-aged sample. Adhesion and oxidation were observed to be the two main mechanisms under dry wear condition. The wear resistance of the experimental alloy increased with aging time until the over-aging stage due to the increment of micro-hardness. Adhesion was observed to be the dominant wear mechanism for the cold-rolled sample while tribo-oxidation dominated for the over-aged sample. The latter was attributed to the effect of precipitates on the mechanically mixed layer of the wear sample.