Das Projekt "Monotektische Legierungen" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Technische Universität Clausthal, Institut für Eisenhüttenkunde und Gießereiwesen durchgeführt. The project is directed develop a new economic production route for casting of aluminium-based monotectic alloys with high hard and phase contents. These new alloys will be used for the manufacturing of advanced bimetal sliding bearings with improved performance for the application as conrod, crankshaft and main bearings in engines of different sizes. Recent developments to reduce fuel consumption, emission and air pollution, size and weight of engines for automotive, truck, ship propulsion and electrical power generation lead to significant increases in bearing loads. Economic bearings of the two-layer type according to the state-of-the-art can no longer provide the required reliability and/or component life. Presently, only costly multilayer bearings with electroplated or sputtered surface coating can cope with the load/speed combinations required. Therefore, aim of the project is the development and testing of new economic bimetal bearings for piston engines, consisting of materials with a significantly higher content of soft and hard phases at the same time and of the corresponding production and processing technology, following a new approach by vertical strip casting. Main efforts of the research are accompanying basic materials and process investigations as well as fundamental and application-oriented characterisation of the basic materials and semi-finished components. This will lead to the optimisation of the properties required for the anticipated utilisation: high loadability, reliability, wear resistance, excellent mechanical and tribological properties as well as economy at the same time.