Ultra Starvation Studied in the Spiral Orbit Tribometer

Abstract

Spiral orbit tribometry has been used to study the coefficient of friction and electrical contact resistance of two vacuum lubricants in both the flooded system and the regime in which only a few nanoliters (μ g) of the lubricant are present, and the latter regime is designated here as ultrastarved. The experiment was supported by the extension to the ultrastarved regime of the recent analysis by Cann and coworkers of contact film thickness as a function of the lubricant volume in the heavily starved regime. The coefficients of friction in the ultrastarved regime were found to be the same as for the flooded system. The contact resistance was found to be zero at the beginning of the tests in the ultrastarved regime. The analysis by Cann and coworkers predicts the absence of a mobile liquid film at the contact in the ultrastarved regime. It is speculated that this persistence of lubrication into the ultrastarved regime is due to the retention of adherent lubricant molecules on the contacting surfaces and the sliding of these molecules over each other. An incomplete coverage of these molecules permits zero contact resistance at the start of the test. The results indicate that ball bearings can operate normally in the ultrastarved regime until the lubricant is consumed by tribochemical reaction.