Effectiveness of lubricant additives for copper‐alloy‐steel sliding contacts

Abstract

Abstract A selection of additives and their performance and compatibility with a variety of copper alloys have been evaluated in an SRV test set‐up. The tests show a remarkable variation of tribological behaviour with a clear relation to both the type of lubricant / additive and the type of alloy. One ester‐based additive showed outstanding friction and wear reduction for some groups of copper alloys. In order to better understand the fundamental mechanisms, we applied a variety of surface analyses, such as 3D confocal white light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray photoelectron microscopy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.