Cylinder liners and consequences of improved honing

Other conference contribution, 2006

The demands on decreased environmental impact from vehicles are resulting in a strong push for decreased engine oil and fuel consumption. Engine oil and fuel consumption are to a great extend controlled by the topography of the cylinder liner surface. Recent engine tests have shown a promising reduction in oil consumption when using cylinder liners with a smoother finish than the current plateau honing. One approach to produce smoother liner surfaces is to replace SiC ceramic honing stones with diamond tools. However, event though the diamond honing process results in higher productivity, improved demands of quality control is needed to monitor the degree of cold worked material - “blechmantel” (German), and the resulting risk of increased wear and scuffing. A number of petrol and diesel engine cylinder liners have been mapped to be able to verify the quality and consequences, in terms of wear and function, of the honing process. A new mapping method, combining SEM images and quantitative image analysis with traditional 2D profilometry has been developed and tested in this study. The liners where tested in a reciprocating rig of 8 mm stroke and with a frequency of 10 Hz, simulating the top-dead center conditions in a running engine. The tests where carried out in high- and low pressure conditions with smooth respectively rough liner roughnesses against PVD coated piston rings. The developed surface mapping method was employed before and after the test to study effect of running-in wear on the surface, features characterized with the SEM- and the 2D profilometer. The results show that combining SEM- and profilometric methods gives a good picture of the effects of varying the cylinder liner pressure and roughness. The core roughness decrease more for diesel liners than for petrol liners. In average (rough and smooth liners) the diesel core roughness decrease 265% while the petrol liners average on a 60% decrease. Blechmantel- and Irregularities ratio show a high sensitivity to varying conditions and decrease 1180% to 100% for the diesel liners while the parameters increase between 106% to 18% for all the petrol liners. A probable cause is the more severe diesel high pressure run-in conditions are able to effectively “truncate” the plateaux and remove residing plastically deformed un-cut honing residues while the less severe petrol liner conditions not manage to remove the blechmantel and irregularities in an important extent.