JPS6337445B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sliding material, and more particularly, to a sliding material that can improve the wear resistance of sliding members that slide relative to each other and can also provide electrical conductivity. It is related to.

In order to have good sliding properties such as friction and wear resistance, sliding materials are made of synthetic resin, or are made by coating a synthetic resin layer on a metal plate as a base material. There are things that are. However, when electrically contacting these two members, one of which rotates and the other is fixed, such as a vehicle horn contact, the synthetic resin sliding material has poor electrical conductivity and must be used. It is not possible.

In view of the above points, the present invention has good sliding characteristics,
It was developed with the aim of providing a sliding material that also has electrical conductivity.This sliding material consists of a backing metal and electrically conductive metal powder sintered on the surface of the backing metal. Sintered metal material,
a synthetic resin material filled in the interpowder voids of the sintered metal material, and the metal surface of the sintered metal material and the synthetic resin material surface are machined into substantially the same plane. It is characterized by

The present invention will be explained below based on illustrated embodiments.
FIG. 1 shows a vehicle steering wheel equipped with a horn contact 1 to which the sliding material according to the present invention is applied. Base 2a of steering wheel 2
A ring horn contact 4 surrounding the steering shaft 3 is fixed to the bottom surface.
A plate horn contact 5 that electrically contacts the ring horn contact 4 has a substantially rod shape, and its main portion 5a is loosely fitted into a hole 6a of a support member 6. On the other hand, a slightly larger diameter contact portion 5b formed at the tip of the main portion 5a is connected to the support member 6.
It is energized by a spring 7 inserted between the ring horn contact 4 and is always in contact with the ring horn contact 4.
That is, the ring horn contact 4 is a rotating member, and the plate horn contact 5 is a fixed member, and these constitute the horn contact 1.

Therefore, it is connected to the power source 8 of the main part 5a of the plate horn contact 5, and the ring horn contact
A horn 9 is connected to the contact 4, and the horn 9 is energized via a switch 10.

2 and 3 show a portion of the ring horn contact 4 on an enlarged scale. A conductive sintered powder 12 is formed on the back metal 11, and a synthetic resin material 13 is filled between these powders, and the upper surfaces of these powders are cut to give a flat surface finish. That is, the sintered powder 12 is exposed on the surface, and the exposure rate is 40 to 60% of the total surface area.
However, it can also be applied at levels of 15 to 60%. The thickness t of this layer 12 is approximately 0.1 mm in this embodiment, but a thickness of 0.02 to 0.3 mm is also applicable.

The material of the sintered powder 12 needs to have conductivity, of course, but Cu-based materials such as bronze, phosphor bronze, lead bronze, and brass, or Al-based and Fe-based materials are used as spherical powder. Alternatively, it is better to use irregular powder. On the other hand, the material of the synthetic resin material 13 is
Resins such as tetrafluoroethylene resin, polyacetal, polyamide, polyimide, phenol resin, and epoxy resin are preferred. And the ring horn
In order to reduce the coefficient of friction on the surface of the contact 4, the material of the synthetic resin material 13 contains a low melting point metal such as Pb or Zn in an amount of 50 wt% or less, preferably 5 to 40 wt%.
Alternatively, solid lubricants such as molybdenum disulfide, graphite, and boron nitride may be added in an amount of 30 wt% or less, preferably 1 to 20 wt%, and aluminum oxide, silicon oxide, titanium carbide, etc. may be added to improve wear resistance. 20wt hard additive
% or less, preferably 1 to 10 wt%, and graphite, carbon, etc. may be added to improve conductivity.

Figures 4 and 5 show the above ring horn.
It shows the manufacturing process of the sliding material that will become the contact 4. A layer of lead bronze powder is formed on the surface of the back metal 11 stretched between the rolls 14 and 15 at step A, and the powder is sintered in a reducing atmosphere at about 780° C. at sintering step B. Next, in the resin impregnation step C, the voids between the powders are filled with a synthetic resin material whose main component is tetrafluoroethylene resin containing the various additives mentioned above, and in the drying step D, they are heated and dried at about 100°C. be pushed down. Thereafter, the powder 12 is fired at a temperature of approximately 380 DEG C. to 400 DEG C. in a firing step, and is discharged with the top of the powder 12 exposed from the surface of the synthetic resin material 13, as shown in FIG. As shown in Figure 5a, the layer thickness t in this state is approximately 0.18 mm.
The shape of the powder 12 is approximately spherical, but the fifth
As shown in Figure b, during the cutting process, the layer thickness t is approximately
If the powder 12 is cut to a thickness of 0.1 mm and made into a roughly hemispherical shape, the area ratio of this powder portion will be approximately
It becomes 40 to 60%, and the conductivity becomes good.

FIG. 6 shows the ring horn according to the above embodiment.
Contact 4 and plate horn contact 5
The amount of wear of the ring horn contact 4 when the two are brought into sliding contact was experimentally determined and compared with that of a conventional device. The experimental conditions were as follows.

[Experiment conditions] Load: 250g Rotation speed: 20rpm (0.052m/sec) Lubrication: Grease Time: 12 hours According to the results of this experiment, the wear amount of this example was 1 μm or more compared to the conventional one. It is understood that the wear resistance has been improved. In addition, it has been confirmed that there is no problem in practical use regarding conductivity.

Ring horn contact 4 according to this embodiment
As mentioned above, the surface, that is, the plate
Since the conductive sintered powder 12 is exposed at the part that makes sliding contact with the horn contact 5, electricity can be passed through this, and in particular, the sintered powder 12 is filled with a synthetic resin material 13. So wear resistant,
It is excellent in terms of low friction.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain good sliding characteristics, and by performing surface cutting by machining, the dispersion ratio of the exposed surface of the sintered powder to the resin material is made good, thereby improving wear resistance. This has the effect of promoting conductivity and also ensuring conductivity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows a steering wheel to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied; FIG.
3 shows one embodiment of the present invention, and the second embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG.
The figure is an enlarged sectional view, Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan view, Fig. 4,
FIGS. 5a and 5b are explanatory diagrams showing the manufacturing process of the sliding material, respectively, and FIG. 6 is a graph showing the experimental results of measuring the wear amount of the embodiment device. 12... Conductive metal material, 13... Synthetic resin material.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 comprising a backing metal, a sintered metal material made of conductive metal powder sintered on the surface of the backing metal, and a synthetic resin material filling the gaps between the powders of the sintered metal material, A sliding material whose metal surface and synthetic resin surface are machined into substantially the same plane.