Izhak Etsion

State of the art in Laser Surface Texturing

Surface texturing has emerged in the last decade as a viable option of surface engineering resulting in significant improvement in load capacity, wear resistance, friction coefficient etc. of tribological mechanical components. Various techniques can be employed for surface texturing but Laser Surface Texturing (LST) is probably the most advanced so far. LST produces a very large number of micro-dimples on the surface and each of these micro- dimples can serve either as a micro-hydrodynamic bearing in cases of full or mixed lubrication, a micro-reservoir for lubricant in cases of starved lubrication conditions, or a micro-trap for wear debris in either lubricated or dry sliding. The paper reviews the current effort being made world wide on laser surface texturing in particular. It presents the state of the art in LST and the potential of this technology in various lubricated applications like mechanical seals, piston rings, thrust bearings, magnetic recording etc. The paper also describes some fundamental on-going research around the world with LST.

Elastic-Plastic Contact Analysis of a Sphere and a Rigid Flat

An elastic-plastic finite element model for the frictionless contact of a deformable sphere pressed by a rigid flat is presented. The evolution of the elastic-plastic contact with increasing interference is analyzed revealing three distinct stages that range from fully elastic through elastic-plastic to fully plastic contact interface. The model provides dimensionless expressions for the contact load, contact area, and mean contact pressure, covering a large range of interference values from yielding inception to fully plastic regime of the spherical contact zone. Comparison with previous elastic-plastic models that were based on some arbitrary assumptions is made showing large differences. ©2002 ASME

Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-Textured Mechanical Seal Faces

An analytical model is developed to predict the relation between the opening force and operating conditions in a mechanical seal with laser textured microsurface structure in the form of micropores. The model is valid for any desired shape of the micropores. An optimization is performed for spherical shape micropores evenly distributed on one of the mating rings face to maximize the opening force and fluid film stiffness. Results of a parametric study are presented showing the effect of the main design parameters on the seal performance. Some results of an experimental investigation with water-lubricated seal rings are also shown and compared with the theoretical model. Presented as a Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers paper at the ASME/STLE Tribology Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 26–28, 1998

A Laser Surface Textured Parallel Thrust Bearing

The potential use of a new technology of laser surface texturing (LST) in parallel thrust bearings is theoretically investigated. The surface texture has the form of micro-dimples with pre-selected diameter, depth, and area density. It can be applied to only a portion of the bearing area (partial LST) or the full bearing area (full LST). Optimum parameters of the dimples, and best LST mode, are found in order to obtain maximum load carrying capacity for a thrust bearing having parallel mating surfaces. A comparison is made with optimum linear and stepped sliders showing that parallel LST sliders can provide similar load carrying capacity. Scheduled for Presentation at the 58th Annual Meeting in New York City April 28–May 1, 2003

Friction-Reducing Surface-Texturing in Reciprocating Automotive Components ©

A model is presented to study the potential use of micro-surface structure in the form of micro pores to improve tribological properties of reciprocating automotive components. The Reynolds equation and the equation of motion are solved simultaneously for a simplified “piston/cylinder” system with surface texturing. The solution provides the time behavior of both the clearance and the friction force between the “piston ring” and “cylinder liner” surfaces. It is shown that surface texturing can efficiently be used to maintain hydrodynamic effects even with nominally parallel surfaces. It is also shown that optimum surface texturing may substantially reduce the friction losses in reciprocating automotive components. Presented at the 56th Annual Meeting Orlando, Florida May 20–24, 2001

Experimental Investigation of Laser Surface Texturing for Reciprocating Automotive Components

An experimental study is presented to evaluate the effectiveness of micro-surface structure, produced by laser texturing, to improve tribological properties of reciprocating automotive components. The test rig and test specimens are described and some test results are presented. Good correlation is found with theoretical prediction of friction reduction on a simple, yet representative, test specimen. Potential benefit of the laser surface texturing under conditions of lubricant starvation is also presented. Finally, friction reduction with actual production piston rings and cylinder liner segments is demonstrated. Presented at the 57th Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas May 19–23, 2002

Static friction coefficient model for metallic rough surfaces

Modele de calcul du coefficient de frottement statique dans le cas de surfaces rugueuses metalliques

An improved wedge calibration method for lateral force in atomic force microscopy

An improved wedge calibration method for quantitative lateral force measurement in atomic force microscopy is presented. The improved method differs from the original one in several aspects. It utilizes a much simpler, commercially available, calibration grating and can be performed at any single specified applied load. It enables calibration of all types of probes, both integrated with sharp tips, and colloidal with any radius of curvature up to 2 μm. The improved method also simplifies considerably the calculation of the calibration factor by using flat facets on the calibration grating to cancel out system errors. A scheme for the data processing for on-line calibration of the lateral force is also presented.

Improving tribological performance of piston rings by partial surface texturing

An analytical model is developed to study the potential use of part ial laser surface texturing (LST) for reducing the friction between a piston ring and cylinder liner. The hydrodynamic pressure distribution and the time dependent clearance between the pi ston ring and cylinder liner are obtained from a simultaneous solution of the Reynolds equation and the ring equation of motion in the radial direction. The time behavior of the fric tion force is calculated from the shear stresses in the viscous fluid film and the time de pendent clearance. An intensive parametric investigation is performed to identify the m ain parameters of the problem. The optimum LST parameters such as dimples depth, texture area density and textured portion of the nominal contact surface of the piston ring are evaluated.

A static friction model for elastic-plastic contacting rough surfaces

A model that predicts the static friction for elastic-plastic contact of rough surfaces is presented. The model incorporates the results of accurate finite element analyses for the elastic-plastic contact, adhesion and sliding inception of a single asperity in a statistical representation of surface roughness. The model shows strong effect of the external force and nominal contact area on the static friction coefficient in contrast to the classical laws of friction. It also shows that the main dimensionless parameters affecting the static friction coefficient are the plasticity index and adhesion parameter The effect of adhesion on the static friction is discussed and found to be negligible at plasticity index values larger than 2. It is shown that the classical laws of friction are a limiting case of the present more general solution and are adequate only for high plasticity index and negligible adhesion. Some potential limitations of the present model are also discussed pointing to possible improvements. A comparison of the present results with those obtained from an approximate CEB friction model shows substantial differences, with the latter severely underestimating the static friction coefficient.