Tribological properties of zinc alloy based composites for bearing applications

The present paper is an attempt made to evaluate and compare the tribological properties of zinc alloy(ZA-27) based composite materials reinforced with graphite(soft) and SiC (hard) particles. The effect of these soft and hard dispersoids on the properties of zinc alloys has been studies. The content of the reinforcement used in both the composite materials was varies from 1 to 5% by weight in steps of 2%. The size of the dispersoids used was between 100-150um. The composite materials were fabricated by the liquid metallurgy technique using the Vertex method in which a vertex was created in the molten zinc alloy thro-ugh an impeller. The results of wear test revealed that the wear rate of the both graphite and Sic reinforced composites was lower than that of the base alloy and it further decreased with the increase in the corresponding reinforcing content.