On the eve of the “World War II” in 1930, in order to solve the problem of copper resource shortage and high cost, Germany began to look for alternatives to tin bronze, lead brass and babbitt alloy, and launched a new generation of sliding bearing alloy research.
In 1935, after nearly five years of research in Germany, it was found that the mechanical properties and antifriction properties of cast zinc-based alloys and cast aluminum-based alloys can exceed that of copper-based alloys and babbitt alloys.
In 1938, Germany successfully used cast zinc alloy instead of tin bronze, aluminum bronze and cast aluminum-based alloy instead of babbitt to manufacture bushings, and was equipped with military tanks and cars and achieved good results.
During the “World War II” period from 1939 to 1943, the annual total use of German cast zinc alloys and cast aluminum-based alloys increased from 7,800 tons to 49,000 tons. This change has attracted the attention and attention of the international lead and zinc organizations.