Wear and frictional mechanisms of copper-based bearing alloys

► This investigation of the dry sliding behavior of a leaded CuSn10Pb10 bronze loaded against a steel ball has lead to following conclusions. ► Energy dissipation is essentially controlled by the plastic deformation of the bronze. ► Absence of lead rich film leads to a more severe wear with respect to unleaded bronze. ► The combined effect of microstructure and surface roughness controls the wear behavior. ► Two mechanistic models describing the build up process of the lead rich layer are proposed.