Patent ID: 8748006

Claim:
A friction bearing having at least one support layer comprising a steel backing and a sintered bearing metal layer, where the sintered bearing metal layer has a total thickness extending perpendicular to the support layer and comprises a gradient layer, wherein the gradient layer has a thickness extending perpendicular to the support layer, the thickness of the gradient layer is at least 30% of the total thickness of the bearing metal layer, wherein the gradient layer has at least one material property that increases continuously along the entire thickness of the gradient layer in a direction perpendicular to the support layer, wherein the bearing metal layer consists of at least two sequentially applied sintered layers, where the first sintered layer is applied with a first powder material on the support layer, the second sintered layer is applied with a second powder material on the first sintered layer, the second powder material penetrates into the first sintered layer to form the gradient layer, the first and second powder materials each comprise a first powder fraction and a second powder fraction, and wherein the first powder fraction of at least one of the first and second powder materials consists of particles which are larger in size than particles of the second powder fraction.