Yupeng An

Advanced Solid Lubricant Technology Improve Engine Performance

The amount of oil consumed by transportation worldwide is increasing rapidly, it was predicted that the basic demand for oil world-wide will continue to grow in the future and the price fluctuations will continue. The climate problems ask for engine emission reducing substantially. Along with the requirements for engine energy saving and emission reduction, especially the restriction of the emission reduction, is harsher and harsher; many approaches have been developed to achieve the aims. Among them, to reduce the friction coefficient of engine frictional parts to save energy and reduce emission is becoming more and more important because a larger part of engine combustion work (20~45 %) is consumed to overcome friction work. Furthermore, the successful application of high pressure common rail fuel system demands low friction and high wear resistance for plunger and needle valves. The fullerene-like nanostructure hydrogenated carbon films with high hardness and high elasticity exhibit super low friction under ambient condition with 20 % relative humidity. With the application of super low friction carbon films, the friction coefficient could be reduced significantly. The bench test indicates that the super low friction carbon films is able to provide reliability for high pressure common rail fuel system, save fuel 1.5 % and reduce emission 2–5 %. It is believable that the employment of the super low friction carbon films on the frictional parts of engine is one of the economical and timely ways for engine energy saving and emission reduction. The strategy of designing robust surface technology to reduce frictional losses may lie in our ability to learn from nature, where organic and inorganic chemistry combine to provide robust adoptable surface layers. The organic thin films chemically bond to carbon films improved the adaptability of lube to carbon films and enhanced the corrosion resistance. The results will expand and ensure the application of carbon films to most frictional parts of engine, and thus to save fuel and reduce emission much more.