Hard milling of micro dimples for friction and wear reduction in highly stressed bearing contacts

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Berend Denkena; Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Poll
• Subject Area: Metal-Cutting and Abrasive Manufacturing Engineering
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 407531729

Friction on tribologically stressed surfaces can be significantly reduced by machining of micro lubrication dimples. Previous research involved the design and effect analysis of lubricant dimples in predominantly sliding exposed areas and the development of tools and machining strategies for the production of those. The originality of this research proposal is the consequent further exploration of this promising technology. As shown later, there are knowledge gaps in particular regarding the structuring of surfaces, which are subject to high contact pressures and rolling contacts. For such parts, usually made of hardened steel components, as for today there are not sufficiently enough scientific insights regarding the relationship between stress and necessary lubrication dimple geometry nor appropriate machining concepts. For this reason, on the one hand, innovative ways to model the tribological relationships have to be developed and on the other hand knowledge has to be gained regarding the machining of micro dimples in hardened materials under novel kinematic conditions. This includes in particular the study of the interaction between manufacturing process, the quality of generated micro dimples and the resulting effect. If the ambitious project objectives will be fulfilled, then considerable scientific potential would achieve an enormous economic potential, too.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants