Archive > surface-treatments

Most people in the high performance world recoil when they hear a reference to cavitation. Cavitation, the formation of vapour bubbles in a flowing liquid, is usually the prelude to component failure, particularlywith propellers, impellers, pumps, and all forms of hydraulic machinery. In some cases, even cylinder heads have been known to fail from this phenomenon. Cavitation occurs when the pressure of a liquid stream falls below its vapour pressure. As bubbles form and then collapse...

For years now, race component manufacturers have closely guarded their proprietary metal super finishing processes. Using increasingly finer grinding mediums to produce the desired surface finish whilst still complying with the precise geometric requirements of the component. Grinding is the traditional final metal finishing operation performed on engineered metal-to-metal contact surfaces such as roller bearings and some gears. It results in a surface with a unidirectional ridged...