Improving the wear and corrosion resistance of nickel aluminium bronze by deep cryogenic treatment

Abstract

Bearing bushes are plain bearings extensively used in pumps, heavy equipment and marine equipment. These bushes are usually made of Lead Tin Bronzes, Aluminium Bronzes etc. C63200, Nickel Aluminium Bronze is the bearing material employed for flash butt welding machine. As welding operation is performed at extremely high temperature and high pressure, bearing material is subjected to corrosion and wear, which results in significant reduction of durability of the bearing. This paper aims to enhance the mechanical characteristics, wear and corrosion resistance of the bearing material C63200 by performing deep cryogenic treatment at −196 °C in liquid nitrogen medium at different soaking time intervals. The material was tempered at 540 °C for 2 h. Change in microstructure of the specimen; post cryogenic treatment was investigated using SEM. It is observed that there is a notable improvement in mechanical properties and wear resistance of the specimen treated at longer soaking time intervals.