Add Aluminium to Babbitt.

Progress, Volume VII, Issue 4, 1 February 1912, Page 993

Add Aluminium to Babbitt.

It is stated that a small percentage of aluminium added to babbitt gives a very superior material over the ordinary babbitt metal. It seems to increase in durability and wearing properties of the metal, and under compressive strain is softer than the common babbitt. In a certain mill a crank pin bearing of a 30 h.p. engine, with the ordinary babbitt metal required attention about everv three days; and after inserting in the bearing aluminium-babbitt strips of about half an inch in width upon the face, dovetailed in alternately in the brass bearing, the same bearing ran under similar work for two months without requiring any attention; and when examined at the end of two months the crank pin was found to have become very much smoother than it was before the aluminium-babbitt had been inserted. Dovetailing the babbitt in strips is recommended, for the reason that it gives equal bearing all over the surface. Another advantage of this babbitt is its extreme malleability. It can be hammered out to a thin edge without cracking, whereas the ordinary babbitt is not at all malleable. An advantage of this is that for bearings, with aluminium, the babbitt can be rolled into shape for inserting in the dovetailed recesses, and can be cast and drifted out at a very small expense and without waste of babbitt.