Tribological system of an internal combustion engine with a coating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10677355-B2
Application number	US-201716077235-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2017
Priority date	Feb 12, 2016
Publication date	Jun 9, 2020
Grant date	Jun 9, 2020

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tribological system ( 1; 2 ) comprising a first body ( 102; 105 ) and a second body ( 101; 107 ), which each form a component of an internal combustion engine ( 100 ), in particular a piston ( 102 ), a piston ring ( 105 ) or a cylinder ( 101, 107 ), and the surfaces ( 112, 108, 113 ) of which have a first and a second material area ( 11, 12 ) which come into contact with each other at least in some regions during operation and form a tribological contact, wherein the first and/or the second material area ( 11, 12 ) is formed as a layer on the basis of chromium oxide or aluminum chromium oxide. The invention also relates to an internal combustion engine ( 100 ) having such a system ( 1; 2 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A tribological system comprising a piston and a cylinder, which each form a component of an internal combustion engine, wherein a surface of the piston comprises a first material area, wherein a surface of the cylinder comprises a second material area, wherein at least a portion of each of the first and second material areas are configured to come into contact with each other during operation and form a tribological contact, wherein the first material area is formed as a layer on the basis of a select one of chromium oxide and aluminum chromium oxide and wherein the second material area is a mixed alumina-chromium oxide layer having a composition of 10 wt % to below 100 wt % Cr 2 O 3 and correspondingly more than 0 wt % and up to 90 wt % Al 2 O 3 .

2. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein the first material area is formed on at least a portion of a select one or more of a piston ring, a piston connector, a piston ring groove area, and a piston crown of the piston.

3. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein the second material area is formed on at least a portion of a cylinder liner of the cylinder.

4. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second material areas are each arranged on a surface of the piston and the cylinder forming a running surface, wherein the running surface comprises a select one or more of a piston shaft slide way, a ring running surface, and a cylinder slide way.

5. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein the first material area is a layer on the basis of aluminum chromium oxide having a chemical composition of (Al1-xCr-y) 2 O 3 , wherein: 0.1≤x≤1 and y≤0.5.

6. The tribological system of claim 5 , wherein 0.5≤x≤1.

7. The tribological system of claim 5 , wherein x=0.7 and y=0.3.

8. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein the first material area has a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm and the second material area has a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm.

9. The tribological system of claim 8 , wherein the first material area has a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.15 μm to 0.4 μm.

10. The tribological system of claim 8 , wherein the second material area has a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.15 μm to 0.45 μm.

11. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein a select one or both the first and second material areas is formed by a thermal spraying method.

12. The tribological system of claim 11 , wherein a select one or both of the first and second material areas has a layer thickness between 150 μm and 800 μm.

13. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein a select one or both of the first and second material areas is formed by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method.

14. The tribological system of claim 13 , wherein the physical vapor deposition (PVD) method comprises cathodic spark evaporation.

15. The tribological system of claim 13 , wherein a select one or both of the first and second material areas has a layer thickness of 10 μm and 30 μm.

16. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein the second material area is formed on the basis of a select one or more of Mo, MoN, MoCuN, DLC, and ta-C.

17. The tribological system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second material areas has a hardness of at least about 18 GPa.

18. An internal combustion engine comprising:
a piston comprising a surface having a first material layer; and
a cylinder comprising a surface having a second material layer;
wherein at least a portion of the first material layer and the second material layer are in contact with each other during operation of the internal combustion engine to form a tribological contact, wherein the first material layer is formed on the basis of a select one of chromium oxide and aluminum chromium oxide and wherein the second material layer is a mixed alumina-chromium oxide layer having a composition of 10 wt % to below 100 wt % Cr 2 O 3 and correspondingly more than 0 wt % and up to 90 wt % Al 2 O 3 .

19. A tribological system that comprises a first body and a second body, which each form a component of an internal combustion engine, wherein the first body comprises a first surface having a first material area, wherein the second body comprises a second surface having a second material area, wherein at least a portion of the first and second material areas are in contact with each other during operation of the internal combustion engine and form a tribological contact, wherein the first material area is formed on the basis of a select one of chromium oxide and aluminum chromium oxide and wherein the second material area is a mixed alumina-chromium oxide layer having a composition of 10 wt % to below 100 wt % Cr 2 O 3 and correspondingly more than 0 wt % and up to 90 wt % Al 2 O 3 .

Assignees

• Oerlikon Surface Solutions Ag Pfaeffikon

Inventors

• Ernst Peter
• Ramm Jürgen
• Seibert Florian
• Widrig Beno

Classifications

• C23C4/11

  Oxides · CPC title

• C23C4/129

  Flame spraying · CPC title

• F16J10/04 Primary

  Running faces; Liners · CPC title

• C23C14/08 Primary

  Oxides (C23C14/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C23C4/134

  Plasma spraying · CPC title