Tribological Properties of Electric Arc-Sprayed CuSn Coating for Bearing Elements

This study was initiated for the purpose of understanding the tribological behavior of CuSn coatings at different loads under dry and lubricant environments for an application of bearing elements. A pin-on-plate type of apparatus was used to subject the CuSn coating to sliding wear against AISI 303 counter body. The surface roughness was measured from worn and unworn samples. The surface morphology and the elemental analysis of the CuSn coating was evaluated using SEM-EDS. Phase analyses of the coating were performed by XRD. It was found that the microhardness values changed with the depth of the coating and a decrease of surface roughness under dry condition wear test is greater than that under the lubricant environment. The critical load between the coating and the substrate was found to be 11.82 mN using scratch results. CuSn coated samples had higher wear resistance under a lubricated environment than that under a dry environment. Moreover, it was observed that the effect of the environment on the friction coefficient values is more dominant than that of the load levels.