There are many attempts to support the development of industry in Indonesia, especially on automotive sector, one of them is by replacing import components with local component products. Bushing is one of imported component that widely used on automotive application including motor strater. Bushing usually made of copper alloy such as brass, bronz or babbit in a solid form by casting or extrusion process. In this research powder metal technology is used to process Cu-Al powder to become slide bearing of motor starter. It is expected that powder metal process not only increasing local content in automotive parts but also providing better quality by increasing life time of bushing compared to ordinary one. i.e: 250 MPa, 350 MPa and 450 MPa, and then all specimens were sintered at different temperatures : 400 0 C, 500 0 C dan 600 0 C for 1 hour. After sintering specimens were air cooled to room temperature. After physical and mechanical test it can be deduced that bushing made by powder metallurgy method could increase its mechanical properties and as aresult improve its life time operation.

Abstract.A degradable polymeric composite was prepared from polyethylene (PE) and breadfruit leaves tree powders. Breadfruit leaves tree powders were mixed with PE in an internal mixer at a temperature above the glass transition of PE without additives. Formulations were based on PE/leaves ratio of 100/0, 90/10, 85/15, 80/20 and 75/25 on a dry weight basis. The effect of leaves powders of 140 and 100 meshon the composite mechanical properties was evaluated by means of universal testing machine (UTM) and hardness Rockwell tester. The results showed increases of elastic modulus and flexural modulus of the composites with increasing leaves powders. Tensile strength, yield strength, yield strain, and hardness decreased with increasing percentage of leaves powders in the composites. Flexural strength was slightly decreased with the presence of the leaves powders but independent on the percentage of the leaves powders. In general, the composite properties of 140 mesh leaves powders were more enhanced compare with that of 100 mesh. PE/leaves composites increased water absorption and caused the bulk composite surface more porous. Hence, oxobiodegradation processes will more easily take place in the PE/leaves composites.