During research for a forthcoming Race Engine Technology magazine article, Wayne Ward discussed the matter of coatings as applied to racing engine pistons with a number of the well-known suppliers, designers and manufacturers of racing pistons. The more specific point of polymer coatings in racing engines has been recently examined on the RET Monitor website, and the application of these to racing engine pistons was discussed. The focus of the discussion of polymer coatings on pistons was...
The use of polymer coatings in racing engines has been widespread for many years, but is to some extent being displaced by the newer generation of coatings such as titanium nitride, chromium nitride and DLC as examples. In a lot of circumstances the newer coatings are an improvement, but the coatings rely on the fact that there will be no significant deformation of the coated surface, otherwise the thin coating, which itself is brittle in comparison to the underlying substrate, can craze...
As far as threaded fasteners are concerned, there are a large number of coatings which can be applied, and in doing so we are generally seeking to address one of a small number of issues, the main ones being: Corrosion- Material incompatibility- Friction- Lack of suitable lubrication In terms of addressing the problem of corrosion, the main candidates come from a list of metallic platings, although polymeric alternatives exist. The common types of plating aimed at limiting or delaying...
Whilst DLC seems clearly to be the favourite coating at the moment, there are some applications where it isn’t necessarily favoured, for various reasons. One area where ‘traditional’ DLC coatings have struggled is in applications where temperatures are significant. The DLC coating begins to degrade at quite a low temperature in comparison with other coatings, such as titanium nitride (TiN) for example. Many of the more common and traditional coatings were developed years...
There are a very wide range of coatings which are employed in motorsport engines nowadays, and Formula One has been at the forefront of this development for many years. The moot point of excessive budgets is the reason that Formula One has been able in many cases to be a guinea-pig for these exciting technologies and, owing to this development coatings such as DLC are now finding widespread use on series production cars. The aim in these production car applications is to decrease friction...