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Technology
Fighting Friction
MicroBlue on Superfinished Surfaces
Frequently Asked Questions
Bearing Technology
Drivetrain Performance
Engine Technology
Step by Step: How We Do It
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GOING FASTER IN AMERICA: It's time to look at friction
Think about it, when it comes to going faster, we ask things to work harder. Higher compression means more load on the piston/rings rod and crank. More rev's means more heat and wear. More cam means more spring. More spring means more friction and more friction SLOWS YOU DOWN. What if we made more power by making things work easier? When things work easier, wouldn't things run cooler and last longer at the same time?
FIGHTING FRICTION: Where Does It Come From?
Racing is (usually) a lubricated world. Take the gears in your transmission. The gear surfaces don't contact each other directly, metal to metal, there's an oil film between them. The rollers in tapered wheel bearings don't actually ride on the steel races, there's a lubricant between them as well.
So back to the transmission, if the gear surfaces don't actually touch, where does the heat come from? It is created when gears come together and pushes the oil out from between the gear surfaces. As the oil is pushed out, the peaks and valleys of the gear surfaces upsets the flow, resulting in turbulence in the flow of the oil. This turbulence causes the oil work against itself, creating friction and heat. Therefore, reducing the amount of turbulence and improving the flow of the oil will always reduce the amount of friction and heat build-up.
FIGHTING FRICTION: Why Smoother Is Better
Smoother is better, but how do we do that in a fast and economical way without changing the size or shape of the part? We have a number of finishing systems that effectively does this without disturbing the dimensional tolerances. We're not going to go into how it works here, you can read more HERE.
MICROBLUE: The Only Coating That Works When "Things Don't Touch"
MicroBlue actually changes the way lubricants work. You know how slippery you feel in the shower with soft water? Soft water changes the way soap wets your skin, making you feel slippery. When a lubricant comes into contact with any MicroBlue coated surface, it does exactly the same thing by changing the way a lubricant works on the surface.
This is very different from other coatings you're familiar with. Conventional coatings don't actually do anything until things touch. For example, a DLC coated wrist pin doesn't protect that pin until there's contact with the rod. The same applies to moly-coated piston skirts and bearing inserts. They have no effect until things touch. But most importantly, none of them works like soft water works!
If you think about it, in our world (with a few exceptions) things don't touch. Those balls don't actually ride on the steel race surfaces, there's an oil film between them. The same goes for gears and everything else that moves.
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