Dry Tribological Property of a New Self-lubricating Material Fabricated with Ordered Porous Copper

A new type of self-lubricating material which is characterized by an ordered porous copper as matrix and a pure lead as lubricant phase is fabricated by liquid metal infiltration process. The friction coefficient and wear rate are measured on MMU-5G tribo-meter. The wear mechanism of the self-lubricating material is analyzed by using SEM, EDS and XRD. The results indicate the tribological properties of the self-lubricating material are better than that of the traditional mold cast Cu-Pb alloy with an equal amount of lead. The friction coefficient of the self-lubricating material was lower than 0.08 under load higher than 200 N (1 MPa), and the wear rate is about 1/10~1/5 of wear rate of the traditional mold casting Cu-Pb alloy. The friction coefficient can be reduced by increasing area fraction of Pb. The dominant wear mechanisms vary from abrasive wear to plastic deformation and adhesive wear with the increasing load.