Surface Engineering Treatment is a revolutionary technology that could potentially replace existing non-environment friendly coatings.
FriCSo’s solution is an innovative device, which could potentially replace existing non-environment friendly coatings in the field of automotive coatings - Frost & Sullivan
The automotive industry faces major challenges related to friction, wear, fuel economy and environmental issues:
FriCSo – Friction Control Solutions (www.fricso.com) has developed innovative technologies and devices that meet these challenges - reducing friction, wear, pollution and energy consumption, and eliminate the use of non-environmental-friendly coating materials, such as chromium and nickel. FriCSo’s technology uses environment friendly polymer in a surface treatment that is used as an alternative to coating.
FriCSo’s technology is called Surface Engineering Treatment (SET). It comprises two processes:
The influence of the two surface treatment steps is as follows: The polymer lapping process influences the surface of the metal by improving the surface characteristics. The conventional lapping process makes use of a metal tool such as cast iron whereas FriCSo’s lapping process uses a uniquely designed patented polymer device. The surface texturing process, involves introducing recesses onto the surface of the metal. These recesses can be either grooves done by plastic deformation or laser dimples. The recesses in the surface of the metal act as oil batteries by retaining oil and making it available to the surface in periods of insufficient oil supply. This provides the necessary lubrication among the mechanical parts of the vehicle in oil starvation conditions like starting an engine. These recesses also funnel the metal debris that is created during sliding friction.
During the lapping process, small torn out fragments from the polymeric lapping device with reactive polar groups abrade the oxide layer, thus stimulating a mechano-chemical reaction between the polymeric fragments. The outcome of this process is a unique protective/metallic interface, which covers the surface of the metal. The protective nanolayer is bonded to the metal substrate by strong ionic forces during the lapping process. The formation of these strong chemical bonds aids the adhesion between the polymeric molecules and the metal surface.
Recently, Surface Engineering Treatment has won the Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award in the field of automotive coatings. According to S. Sumithra, Research Analyst of Frost & Sullivan, “FriCSo’s solution is an innovative device, which could potentially replace existing non-environment friendly coatings in the field of automotive coatings. The three significant advantages achieved by the polymer lapping process are the increase in the surface hardness of the metal, improvement in the surface topography and most importantly the formation of an oil retaining protective nanolayer that is chemically bonded to the metal surface.”
FriCSo’s solution is not a coating but delivers coating-like performance at a fraction of the time, cost and maintenance required by traditional solutions. Metal parts treated with Surface Engineering Treatment enjoy high wear resistance and improved energy efficiency in the engines. Surface Engineering Treatment is cost effective compared to using exotic metals (such as bronze) for metal-pairs design, DLC and other coatings and bushings, and even offers superior performance in certain applications. Being environment friendly, this technology does not produce any toxic waste and complies with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restrictions.
FriCSo’s processes can be used on any existing lathe, lapping, honing or super-finishing machine. The processes are adapted to mass production and require minimum adaptation to existing production lines.
Various tests conducted by prospective clients of FriCSo proved that the coefficient of friction achieved in the Surface Engineering Treatment process is much lower than the conventional process and the hardness of the metallic nanolayer increases near the surface as against the results achieved in a conventional process. The oil film that is formed on the protective monolayer provides better lubrication with its smaller coefficient of friction. This technology meets the friction reduction needs in automotive cylinder liners, piston pins, rocker shafts, camshafts, and key parts of hydraulic systems such as plungers, shoes, shafts and swash plates.
The technology is viable in various metal types such as hardened steel, aluminium, cast iron and even on hard chrome coating.
Surface Engineering Treatment can be applied to a variety of automotive parts in the automotive industry, including shock absorber rods, steering columns and constant velocity joints. The vibro-grooving provides an oil reservoir on the metal surface, while FriCSo’s polymer lapping adds an oil-retaining organic nanolayer, hardens the metal surface, and produces an extremely flat, smooth super finished surface.
In the field of piston pins, FriCSo’s Surface Engineering Treatment reduces friction and wear, especially during run-in and engine start-stop, and is an alternative to costly bushings. The expensive, time-consuming process of adding a bushing can be replaced by finishing the piston pin with FriCSo’s patented polymer device.
Surface Engineering Treatment can be deployed on existing mass production machines at 1 pin/sec throughput, resulting in 20% reduction in manufacturing costs and 30% reduction in friction losses compared with steel on bronze bushing. The roughness after treatment is Ra=0.03 µm, compared to Ra=0.4 µm, before the treatment. Surface hardness increases from 600 Hv to 1,100 Hv, and the vibro-grooving funnels debris away from contacting surfaces.
In the field of cylinder liners, Surface Engineering Treatment reduces friction losses and obtains better performance and sealing (improved compression), thus reducing fuel consumption. When FriCSo’s polymer lapping is applied, wear is significantly reduced, including the rate of wear of rings. Oil consumption is reduced by 50% and sealing, compression ratio, and engine performance are improved.
For rocker shafts, Surface Engineering Treatment replaces phosphate batch-coating process with an in-line process, improving wear resistance and increasing oil retention. In tests that compared phosphate coating to FriCSo treatment, after thousands of engine-hours, FriCSo treatment proved to be more cost-effective in providing performance reliability.
In racing engines, Surface Engineering Treatment reduces breakage and improves wear and lifetime in exhaust valve stems, under the extreme pressures experienced.
In the field of shock absorber rods, Surface Engineering Treatment addresses the need for driving experience improvement by reducing force required to damp shocks. It prolongs service life and flexibility of the elastomer seal and reduces Rpk by 50%. Surface Engineering Treatment also improves the coefficient of friction of chrome-plated parts (hardness Rc 74).
Steering columns enjoy 30% reduction in friction between the steering column and supports. Surface Engineering Treatment is an alternative to costly bushings - bushing may be replaced by steel-on-steel pair without loss of performance. In addition, Surface Engineering Treatment reduces production cost of steering column and supports.
Surface Engineering Treatment reduces friction in constant velocity joints by 25% and prolongs service life, despite the constantly changing torque angle.
Keywords: Surface Engineering Treatment, Friction losses, automotive coatings, FriCso, Recesses, Vibro-grooving, Polymer Lapping
