More than 30% of the energy in a combustion engine is lost due to friction. This has important implications in the automotive industry, where fuel efficiency is becoming a pressing issue due to present and incoming emission regulations. In 2009, a total of 208,000 million litres of fuel was burned in cars to overcome friction. Introducing technological solutions could save 117,000 million litres/year in fuel consumption after 5-10 years of enhanced action. This will result in decreasing CO2 emissions by 290 million tonnes/year and financial savings of €174,000 million/year.
Traditional oil lubricants present serious environmental problems, since they produce harmful combustion gasses when exposed to the hot environment of the engine. Contaminant additives have been thus reduced, with the associated performance issues.
Solid lubricants (MoS2 and WS2) are becoming extensively used as an alternative. However, the state of the art technologies for coating application present several drawbacks, such as poor surface attachment, complicated procedures (high costs) and low control of layer growth.
At ANS we have developed an innovative solution for friction and wear reduction that offers 80% of boundary friction reduction at a competitive cost (competing technologies 80-100% more expensive): Triboconditioning®. It® is a mechanochemical surface treatment method that can be implemented as a superfinishing operation using standard machines. The result is a smooth surface covered with a low friction tribofilm that reduces friction and wear of the component.
The commercialization of Triboconditioning responds to major technological demands of the automotive market. It will allow for downsizing and start-stop technologies without durability issues, thus contributing to fuel economy. Boosting the automotive industry has direct social effects. Only in Europe, the automotive sector is responsible for 11.6 million jobs and is the largest private contributor to R&D.
In TriboGlide we intend to take Triboconditioning to TRL 9 by developing on-going customer relationships to carry out the final technology verification. The Triboconditioning® technology will be available on a license basis to component manufacturers and system builders. This will enable a network of Tier 1 and OEM customer base that will favour a low entry barrier for our product and a short time to market. We will develop three main applications for our innovative technology: Big Bores, Small Bores and Shafts.
