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Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has been widely used in industrial field for sealing parts. However, it is well known that PTFE is always subject to serious wear at high temperature (over 150 °C), which has become the main drawback limiting serve life of important equipment such as compressors. In this paper, a new solution is proposed for improving the wear resistance of carbon fibers-reinforced PTFE (CFRPTFE). Multilayer Ti-TiCx/DLC film is prepared and used as the counterface of CFRPTFE. Friction and wear tests at high temperature (200 °C and 250 °C) are carried out. The uncoated 17-4PH steel disks precisely polished by abrasive papers with different grain sizes are used as the reference counterface (SS80 and SS7000). It is found that by sliding against Ti-TiCx/DLC film, the tribological behaviors of CFRPTFE at high temperature can be improved. The friction coefficient between CFRPTFE and DLC under different test conditions can be kept in stable state. The wear rates of CFRPTFE reduce by 50%–70% compared to SS80, and reduction of 20%–40% can be observed when compared to SS7000. It can be found that graphitization transition at high temperature promotes the transfer layer formation and contributes to lower friction and lower wear compared to traditional processed counterface at high temperature. These significant improvements can prolong the lifetime of CFRPTFE moving parts used in high-temperature and heavy-load applications. Finally, engineering verification of the proposed friction pair is carried out in miniature oil-free high-pressure compressor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the enhancement of environmental protection awareness of the international community and the continuous promotion of green and sustainable development of manufacturing industry, water lubrication instead of mineral oil has become the future development trend due to its green, pollution-free, clean, safe, and sustainable advantages especially in ships, marine, coal mining, and other fields. In recent years, with the rapid development of water lubrication research, significant progress has been made in related research knowledge domain and discipline. A systematic and extensive assessment of water lubrication research has become increasingly important. The objective of this research is to reveal the research status, research hotspots, and development trends in the field of water lubrication. Therefore, CiteSpace was used to conduct a systematic bibliometric and scientometrical analysis of 1,792 publications from Web of Science core collection database (1997–2021). The results show that China and USA are the most productive countries in the field of water lubrication and have made outstanding contributions. Through the analysis of hot key words and co-citation references, this paper reviews the research status of water lubrication in three aspects: (1) lubricating medium modification; (2) material preparation; (3) surface optimization. It has become a research hotspot to promote the superlubricity contact interface and the application of nanotechnology. The results of this study can make a significant contribution to the development of water lubrication by providing a comprehensive understanding of the research status and research hotspots in this field. Personal understanding and discussion of research hotspots and research status are expected to provide insights into future research trends. In addition, this study will provide valuable references and guidelines for researchers who are interested in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balance valve is a core component of the 11000-meter manned submersible “struggle,” and its sealing performance is crucial and challenging when the maximum pressure difference is 118 MPa. The increasing sealing force improves the sealing performance and increases the system’s energy consumption at the same time. A hybrid analytical—numerical—experimental (ANE) model is proposed to obtain the minimum sealing force, ensuring no leakage at the valve port and reducing energy consumption as much as possible. The effects of roundness error, environmental pressure, and materials on the minimum sealing force are considered in the ANE model. The basic form of minimum sealing force equations is established, and the remaining unknown coefficients of the equations are obtained by the finite element method (FEM). The accuracy of the equation is evaluated by comparing the independent FEM data to the equation data. Results of the comparison show good agreement, and the difference between the independent FEM data and equation data is within 3% when the environmental pressure is 0–118 MPa. Finally, the minimum sealing force equation is applied in a balance valve to be experimented using a deep-sea simulation device. The balance valve designed through the minimum sealing force equation is leak-free in the experiment. Thus, the minimum sealing force equation is suitable for the ultrahigh pressure balance valve and has guiding significance for evaluating the sealing performance of ultrahigh pressure balance valves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) is an additive manufacturing technology used to produce metal-based materials. PBF materials have a unique microstructure as a result from repeated and sharp heating/cooling cycles. Many researches have been carried out on relations between processing parameters of the PBF technology, obtained microstructures and mechanical properties. However, there are few studies on the tribological properties of PBF materials at various contact conditions. This article describes previous and recent studies related to the friction performance. This is a critical aspect if PBF materials are applied to friction pair components. This paper discusses wear rates and wear mechanisms of PBF materials under dry friction, boundary lubrication and micro-motion conditions. PBF materials have higher hardness due to fine grains. PBF materials have a higher wear resistance than traditional materials due to their solid solution strengthening. In addition, hard particles on the surface of PBF components can effectively reduce wear. The reasonable combination of process parameters can effectively improve the density of parts and thus further improve the wear resistance. This review paper summarized the wear behavior of PBF materials, the wear mechanism of metal materials from dry friction to different lubrication conditions, and the wear behavior under fretting wear. This will help to control the processing parameters and material powder composition of parts, so as to achieve the required material properties of parts and further improve the wear performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]