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BEYOND SURFACES
Fall
16
Passion
resistance. “Thanks to SUMEBore, we achieve a lower
specific consumption over nearly the entire engine
speed range. That’s very important for us because for
the ‘Efficiency’ discipline, the consumption is calculated
for the 22 kilometre distance race of the endurance
competition and the team with the lowest consumption
wins 100 of the possible 1’000 points. Low consumption
is also of special importance for us because with our four-cylinder engine, we naturally have a higher consumption
level then teams with a one-cylinder engine,” explains
Francesco Salerno.
In racing, commercial vehicles,
passenger cars and motorcycles
The systems for the application of the SUMEBore
coatings are based on atmospheric plasma spraying
(APS). The coating is carried out by means of a plasma
torch which is rotated using the RotaPlasma system.
“It basically works like this: The coating powder is intro
duced into a hot plasma. The powder particles melt
forming droplets which are applied uniformly to the inside
of the cylinder by means of the rotational movement of
the plasma torch and the acceleration of the plasma
gas, thus creating the coating,” explains Peter Ernst,
summarizing the highly complex process. SUMEBore
has not only been used for years in racing: HGV manu
facturer, Scania, relies on the SUMEBore technology
for virtually all of their engines; the Volkswagen Group
uses it, for example, in their EA211 four-cylinder engine
which is manufactured in large numbers every year;
SUMEBore is also used in the new Porsche 918 Spyder
(see
BEYOND SURFACES
1/2016).
Friction concept with BALINIT DLC
The Coburg Automobile Team, or CAT, from the Coburg
University of Applied Sciences, Germany, also depends
on SUMEBore. “We asked ourselves the question, What
kind of performance could we get from a series engine?
In our case, that’s a Yamaha R6 which has been a faith-
ful part of our team for years. We have developed a
friction/performance concept and in Oerlikon Metco, we
have found our sponsoring partner. But we were sure of
one thing: that our engine offered even more potential.
Then Oerlikon Balzers gave us the opportunity to coat
individual components with BALINIT DLC STAR,” says
Thomas Schnurr, power train team leader for CAT,
looking back at the beginning of the season.
Sascha Hessel, Head of Precision Components
at Oerlikon Balzers, Germany, explains: “We support
several German university teams with our coatings. For
CAT, we coated the piston pins, bucket tappets and
camshaft of the new car with BALINIT DLC STAR. We
get regular feedback from the team as to how the system
is developing. That represents valuable data for us.”
Lower consumption + lower weight =
more points
BALINIT DLC STAR, a modified diamond-like carbon
coating, exhibits outstanding tribological performance
and is employed by automobile manufacturers for the
components in diesel injection systems and the en-
gine parts which are subjected to the greatest loading.
A ductile (elastic) metal-based coating of chromium
nitride provides the necessary hardness and with its high
load capacity, it supports the superimposed tribological
carbon coating.
“We expected our friction/performance concept to
generally provide more power and less consumption,
which represents an important aspect in the ‘Endur-
ance’ discipline: With lower consumption, less weight
needs to be taken along and that means more points for
us. We were then also able to validate significant ben-
efits resulting from our friction/performance concept in
terms of fuel consumption, oil consumption and engine
running,” summarizes Thomas Schnurr.
Outstanding results achieved
After a brilliant season, both teams have good reason
to be satisfied: The Stuttgart racing team was able to
win four of five races, which put them at the top of the
ranking after all of the races in Europe were completed.
The Coburg Automobile Team was also able to finish the
season with one win at the Formula SAE event in Italy,
putting them in sixth place in the overall ranking.