Patent ID: 7572521

Claim:
An aluminum alloy for providing a coating for bearing elements, the alloy having an aluminum matrix and comprising: (a) a soft phase; and (b) a hard phase; wherein said hard phase is made up of at least one element from a first group of elements comprising chromium, iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, molybdenum, magnesium, niobium, platinum, scandium, silver, silicon, vanadium, tungsten, zirconium or carbides, silicides, nitrides, borides of the elements of the first element group or inter-metallic phases from elements of the first element group; wherein said soft phase is made up of at least one element from a second group of elements comprising silver, aluminum, gold, bismuth, graphite, calcium, copper, indium, magnesium, lead, palladium, platinum, scandium, tin, yttrium, zinc and lanthanoides; wherein the soft phase is different from the hard phase; wherein the soft phase and the hard phase is essentially finely distributed in the aluminum matrix; wherein at least 80% of the soft phase or soft phase particles have a mean diameter of a maximum of 3 μm; and wherein at least 90% of the hard phase or hard phase particles have a smaller mean diameter than the soft phase particles.