Effect of heat treatment on tribological characteristics of CuAl10Ni5Fe4 nickel aluminum bronze

Al bronze are the choice of material for relatively high wear applications besides appreciable mechanical and corrosion properties. In present work, the effect of different heat treatment processes on tribological characteristics of Ni-Al bronze (CuAl10Ni5Fe4, UNS C63000) has been studied. The hot rolled bar of 30 mm diameter was subjected to annealing, quenching and aging processes separately, consequently their effect on microstructure was studied and co-related with tribological characteristics. The formation and nucleation of various phases due to the thermal treatments were observed using optical microscopy. The wear behavior was studied using ball on disk arrangement with 100Cr6 ball and Ni-Al Bronze samples as disk. The characteristics and mechanism of wear track was studied using scanning electron microscope. It was observed that the water quenched sample followed by aging at 300°C exhibited best tribological characteristics. (author)