Strategic Microstructure Design for Energy Efficient Copper Bearings

Objective

Bearings are indispensable components across modern engineering technology, from transport and energy to manufacturing and medical devices. Their reliability is fundamentally limited by premature failure due to friction, wear, and tribo-oxidation. Existing approaches to extend bearing lifetime - incremental alloy modifications, protective coatings, or self-lubricating composites - offer only partial improvements. They do not address the root cause: the absence of metallic alloys with microstructures that are intrinsically resistant to friction and wear. This PoC project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a new class of copper-based alloys for high-load bearings, developed through microstructure-by-design principles rather than empirical trial-and-error. Building directly on the ERC Consolidator Grant TriboKey, which revealed how deformation twinning, dislocation plasticity, tribo-oxidation regimes, and surface topography control friction and wear, the project will translate these insights into actionable design rules. By tailoring grain-scale architectures, controlling oxide formation regimes, and optimizing surface waviness–lubrication interactions, we will fabricate alloys with durability embedded at the material level. The project pursues four objectives: (i) fabricate demonstrator alloys via two processing routes, (ii) validate their tribological performance in lab tests under application-relevant conditions, (iii) clarify the intellectual property and knowledge transfer strategy, and (iv) develop a roadmap for exploitation with industrial partners. Activities will be supported by advanced characterization and close collaboration with potential end users. By embedding wear resistance, low friction, and robustness directly into the alloy microstructure, this project introduces a paradigm shift in bearing design. Beyond bearings in energy systems, the innovation has cross-sectoral potential in aerospace, automotive, marine, and heavy machinery applications.