Plain Bearing Material Problem

Need to specify that this is in an environment where lint can collect and gum up the works, so he wants to stay away from lubricants if possible (from a thread in comp.cad.solidworks).

Mark 'Sporky' Staplet>

The following may be of use. Although most of it is concerned with lubricated bearings.

I assume it is a sleeve bearing? if so the copper in the brass and nickel in the stainless steel form are soluable in each other over thier whole range of compositions (Monel, cuppernickel, etc.) The extra sulfur in a T303 stainless can sometimes help - in this case not.

Try a polymer sleeve bearing to sun with a T303 shaft - such as polyproplene. Using a brass bearing with carbon steel shaft would be OK if lubricated. Wear (tribology) is a branch of science without any general rules - one must all ways experiment or depend on historic solutions. A different design (such as a roller bearing) may be a quicker / better solution.

Ed

Yes this is a plain bearing, one at each end of the shaft. Does this mean that I should rule out using phosphor bronze bearings (95% Copper - 5% Tin)

Phosphor bronze is better used with hard shafts and lubricated. If you want to improve on brass you could try a leaded bronze or gunmetal, but for low loads a polymer might be better. If you want to use metal you could try a sintered bearing material, these would probably work but can be expensive.