Description du projet :
Kugler Bimetal (KB) is a company providing bearings for demanding applications in hydraulics, aeronautics and industrial machinery, featuring elevated requirements in terms of precision, stress, speed, and temperature. Today's production relies on bronze to which lead is added to ensure dry lubrication under extreme conditions. Because of both internal and customer environmental concerns, as well as an expected reinforcement of the REACH regulation, a Pb-free bronze solution has to be developed to win the market.
In 2020, as a result of a CTI project, KB introduced successfully a first Pb-free solution specifically designed for laser cladding; however, laser cladding can be used only in limited bearing configurations. 80% of KB’s production relies rather on gravity casting, furnace brazing and induction brazing. These 3 technologies differentiate from laser cladding by a much lower alloy solidification rate, rendering the alloy that has been developed for laser cladding inadequate, because coarser resulting structures lead to insufficient properties in term of lubrification, hardness and embrittlement with this alloy.
The aim of the present project is the design and production of a new Pb-free bearing bronze suited for the 3 aforementioned technologies. The project pools three academic institutions in addition to KB, and is to be led by the HEIG-VD. EPFL will be in charge of defining appropriate compositions building on a previous Innocheque study that identified Bi and Mn additions to tin bronze as a potential solution. HEIG-VD will conduct material fabrication and characterization while HEPIA will be in charge of tribological performance.
Lack of a Pb-free solution would threaten KB’s existence and its 70 work places into question, while on the other hand bringing rapidly a solution to market will allow it to gain significant and growing market shares. An annual profit of 2 MCHF in 2028 and 8 MCHF in 2031 is expected from a successful completion of this project.
Research team within HES-SO:
Milosevic Irena
, Müller Randoald
Statut: Ongoing
SWITCH edu-ID
Administration
