The development of the lubricants applied in the porous bearings

In the article the development process of lubricants applied to the porous sliding bearings is described and characterised. Porous bearings are widely used in mechanical vehicles, household appliances and manufacturing equipment. However their application to tribological pairs is believed to be limited because of their properties and features such as small resistance to edge and dynamic loads, ability to work only at small sliding velocity. For the last twenty years intensive research under the development of the porous bearings has been observed and newly designed porous bearings have occurred. In that process also lubricants were developed. As the result the range of used lubricants is wider and also their chemical constitution was changed from the mineral oils to the synthetic bases giving better resistance on aging process and better rheological characteristics. Each group of lubricants was characterised and the problems of lubricant selection and application were described. In the article it was also noticed that especially the Polish manufacturers of porous materials do not regard the problem of lubricant selection seriously. Finally, it was summarised that wider selection of new lubricants for the porous bearings enables proper design of the tribological pair for the future work conditions.