Self-Lubricating Wear Resistant Advanced Materials

This proposal is focused at testing a new family of intermetallic materials for superior wear resistance in automotive applications due to the self-lubricating potential of the base material at a significant reduction in operating cost and capital investment. The proposed materials are produced by a new technique resulting in uniquely superior properties. Due to the ultrafine microstructure resulting from the process, the properties of the materials are dramatically improved over previous technology. Shaped articles are formed from the powder using techniques like hot pressing and EDM or by directly near-net shaping during the initial reaction step. This proposal will initially focus on performing standard pin on disk wear testing as well as evaluating the costs compared to existing materials.