Bearing performance is an important factor to improve efficiency of pumps. Depending on specific pump requirements, pump producers have various alternatives for selection of bearing materials. Little friction, slightest to no wear, low-power utilization, and extended life are important features for pump bearings. Serious attention must be given to the tribological evaluation of typical bearing materials. In this work, a pin-on-disk wear testing instrument is employed to study the sliding wear response of phosphor bronze, nylon 6/6, brass, DLC-coated steel, and WC/C coated steel. The tests were performed with an applied load of 10 N and sliding velocity of 0.6 m/s. EN 31 steel heat treated to 55 HRC was selected as disk material. The experiments are conducted as per ASTM G99 standards. The low value of coefficient of friction was noticed in nylon 6/6 and DLC-coated steel. © 2019, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.