Reduction of Friction Torque in Vane Pumps by Using Physical Vapour Deposition-Coated Vane

Abstract

This paper presents a method of reducing friction torque in a hydraulic vane pump through a short-period pump operation by using physical vapour deposition (PVD)-coated vanes. It is well known that the friction torque in a vane pump as well as in other hydraulic machines can be reduced by running-in through a long-time pump operation. This paper revealed that the reduction in the friction torque was derived from lowered friction between a cam contour and vane tips owing to the smoothed surface of a cam contour. Commonly, it was difficult to obtain such an effect through a short-period pump operation. The author has attempted to lessen the surface roughness of the cam contour and to decrease the friction torque of a vane in a short period of time by using vanes coated with an extremely hard PVD layer on their tips. In this study, three kinds of coatings of chromium nitride (CrN), titanium carbonitride (TiCN), and diamond-like carbon (DLC) by PVD were examined. It was found that the TiCN-coated vane was excellent in smoothing the surface roughness of the cam contour and in reducing the friction torque of the vane in a short period of time. It was also shown that the reduced friction torque of the vane depended essentially on the smoothness of the cam contour surface. In addition, the difference of the friction at the vane tip between an ordinary vane and coated vanes was indistinct for the same surface roughness of the cam contour below 0.8 μ m Rz.