In recent decades, the requirements for plain bearing materials have continually increased, especially with new applications such as wind turbines, which require larger bearings. These new applications have completely different property profiles compared with, for example, bearings in automotive construction. Larger bearings need high strength and wear resistance, which established bearing materials cannot fulfill. Therefore, new alloy systems are required. This publication focuses on the influence of alloy composition and test temperature on the mechanical properties of ZnAlCu alloys. Centrifugally cast specimens were produced for the fabrication of test specimens, which were used to determine the mechanical and tribological properties. Fracture surface and wear trace analysis with scanning electron and light microscopy were used to determine occurring failure and wear mechanisms and to analyze the influence of microstructure on failure. Depending on the composition of the ZnAlCu alloys, up to three times higher strengths can be achieved compared with the white metal alloy SnSb12Cu6ZnAg. Furthermore, all the alloys investigated show good wear properties. Up to 11 wt.% aluminum and 1.5 wt.% copper, a significant decrease in the wear coefficient was observed. Knowledge about the correlation between microstructure, properties, and failure mechanisms of ZnAlCu alloys can be used to produce bearing metal alloys suitable for a wide range of applications. Since the strength values lie between those of white metals and bronze, new fields of application can also be accessed.

Solidification and phase formation of Zn-rich Zn-Al-Cu alloys with different Al and Cu contents were investigated. The investigations comprise alloy compositions with either hcp η, fcc α or hcp ε as the primary phase, as well as a composition close to the ternary eutectic point. Test samples were produced in a mold casting process and their microstructures were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Experimental microstructures are compared with the results from spatially resolved microstructure simulations using a phase-field model. In particular, the dependency between the aluminum and copper contents and the phase fractions of the η, α and ε phases were analyzed. In addition, hardness tests for the samples prove a direct correlation between the α- and ε-phase fractions with the macroscopic hardness of the alloys. A simple model, based on the phase fractions and the properties of the single phases, is suggested for the computation of hardness from the simulation results in order to select appropriate alloy compositions for bearing applications.

The dependence of the interfacial formation of ZnAlCu alloys on S355 steel substrates on the aluminum content of the alloy and the cooling conditions is investigated for the gravity die casting process. Steel substrates pre-galvanized with ZnAl0.2 as well as with ZnAl5 are used as initial condition. The area fractions of the interfacial phases formed in the process are quantitatively determined by a binarization method and correlated with the compositions and the casting conditions in simple mathematical models. Under the test conditions, especially for hypoeutectic alloy variants with a maximum of 5.5 wt% Al, clear dependencies of the phase fractions in the interfacial formation on the aluminum content, but also on the cooling conditions could be demonstrated. The correlations of the forming phases with the type of pre-galvanization could also be shown over a wide range of compositions and solidification rates.