Some Friction Studies of Deva Metal

IN THE QUEST for more sophisticated bearing alloys, to deal with high temperature operations, considerable attention has been paid in the past two or three years to combinations of solid lubricants and organic and inorganic binders. Thus, sodium silicate and certain synthetic resins have been suggested as means of cohering solid lubricants, to enable them to be formed or moulded. There are obvious difficulties in this approach except for bearings which need have a short life, as in rocketry. On the ground, where weight is not all‐important and where bearing life is important, one wonders whether certain conventional solutions of the problem of high temperature lubrication have received the exploitation they deserve. The performance of solid lubricants have received adequate attention in various countries, and it would seem that graphite and molybdenum disulphide continue to take first place. They exhibit a characteristic coefficient of friction of between 0.09 and 0.11, for continuous thin films formed on smooth substrates.