Many of the applications discussed in the RET-Monitor articles where thermal barrier coatings are concerned have been on the subject of exhausts. Thermal barrier coatings here have the aim of reducing radiated heat, although in some cases a benefit of such coatings can be to improve the efficiency of the turbocharger turbine by retaining heat within the exhaust flow rather than rejecting it to atmosphere prior to the turbine. Read more…

The use of plasma-sprayed coatings has been slow to proliferate; the technique isn’t very new, and the range of coatings is immense. Whereas other coating methods can be limited - by solubility of metal salts in electrolytes, for example - plasma coatings are generally limited only by the availability of material in the correct form and the ability of the coating material to be melted. Read more…

The subject of the ‘management’ of heat as concerns race engine exhausts is largely a matter of containment. We have covered the subject briefly before in RET-Monitor articles, and have discussed the advantages of keeping the heat in the exhaust rather than having it radiated to the outside world via the engine bay, which contains lots of electronic components that can object to becoming too hot. Heat radiated to the engine structure and the gearbox can lead to the need for greater cooling capacity; and this has an aerodynamic Read more…

In a previous article on oil-shedding coatings in summer 2010, I mentioned some of the reasons why they might yield performance gains in an engine where frictional losses due to the action of oil shearing are significant. These coatings are likely to offer most gain in engines where there is a combination of an excess of oil and a number of areas of small dynamic clearance where shearing takes place.

The reality is that, where opportunity exists to engineer Read more…

The preponderance of multi-cylinder four-stroke race engines means that the production and supply of bearing shells is big business. The share of the bearing market occupied by two-stroke and four-stroke engines with assembled crankshafts that use rolling-element main and crankpin bearings, or four-stroke engines that are designed to use special rolling-element bearings with split outer races, is very small indeed. Read more…

The contribution of the piston assembly to overall engine frictional losses is well documented and has been the subject of a lot of research over a number of decades.

In SAE paper 911230, for example, the authors Tsuchida and Tsuzuku study the effects of various design features on piston friction losses for high-speed engines (up to 16,000 rpm). At the time - the late 1980s and early ’90s - the Japanese were selling production motorcycles with engine speeds higher than even Formula One engines Read more…

Pistons are part of the fundamental mechanism of most internal combustion engines, and are certainly very widely employed in racing. While roadcar producers still persist in development of the rotary engine concept, it has been pretty much abandoned by racers, especially by those who produce bespoke race engines. Although rotaries might yet enjoy something of an unexpected revival as range-extenders in electrically driven vehicles, reciprocating (piston) engines will continue to dominate, both in motorsport and series production applications. Read more…

The subject of coatings in motorsports is a hot topic, and has been for some time. Coatings have proven to be a ’silver bullet’ in curing some problems, or knocking down obstacles that stand in the way of improved performance and reliability. There remains a lot of development activity in the development of coatings, and increasing willingness in motorsports to work with coatings companies to find the correct solutions to problems or to develop new coatings. Read more…

The matter of selecting the correct material for fasteners is an important one. The design engineer or engine development specialist has to be sure that the material is strong enough to resist the applied loads and have the fatigue resistance to continue in its role between engine rebuilds. There are a huge number of materials offered by manufacturers of fasteners depending on the application, service loads, environment and so on.

The job of those working with internal combustion Read more…

In researching a recent article on this subject in Race Engine Technology (issue 47, June/July 2010), I spoke to many companies and discussed all kinds of coatings. DLC has been around for a number of years now and its use is widespread; however, this coating still attracts a lot of R&D spending for process development.

The aims of this are generally to produce an improved coating in terms of one or more parameters. It would be considered a worthwhile step forward in coating Read more…