Environmental and commercial considerations are strongly driving research into weight saving in
aircraft. In this research, innovative manufacturing processes were developed to produce
lightweight titanium alloy bearings capable of withstanding high bearing pressures. This will
enable the replacement of heavier conventional bearing materials with titanium alloy bearings of
the same size thereby saving weight. Plasma processing and PVD coating techniques were
refined and combined and a sound scientific understanding of the resulting novel processes
developed to assure high performance, reliability and repeatability. These techniques were
applied to test discs and small bearing (bush) samples, which were tested under progressively
greater loads (pressures). FEA was also used to evaluate pressure distribution in a bush test
assembly. The novel treatment has potential applications for many bearings and bearing surfaces
throughout aircraft.peer-reviewe
