Open Competition - Advanced Materials/Chemicals (October 2000)

Coating-Enabled Component Design/Technology Tools for Nanostructured Coatings

Sponsor: Caterpillar Inc.

• Project Performance Period: 11/1/2000 - 1/31/2005
• Total project (est.): $9,588,447.00
• Requested ATP funds: $4,778,305.00

Advanced coatings constructed on the nanometer scale could greatly enhance the performance of machine components, such as truck and aerospace transmissions, but such coatings currently cannot be produced with enough repeatability to enable the design of reliable components with complex shapes. Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies Research Center (East Hartford, Conn.), and J.A. Woollam Co., Inc. (Lincoln, Neb.), plan to develop improved design tools and processes for complex components that exploit the performance advantages offered by nanostructured coatings, and to demonstrate their use in making more powerful and efficient gears. Coatings are typically applied by placing parts in a vacuum chamber containing an ionized gas from which the coating is built up atom by atom. In the four-year project, the partners will develop a sensor-based system for controlling and assuring the quality of coatings as they are deposited to eliminate inconsistencies that currently result from inadequate process control. The team will also develop new methods for measuring critical coating properties and the mechanisms that control their performance, and for applying these properties onto complex shapes. Physics-based life prediction models for coated systems will be developed that incorporate wear-dependent changes, unlike current models. The new models will focus on how microstructural details affect gear failure modes. Finally, new gear geometries will be designed based on the physical property maps, performance characteristics, and life prediction models, with a goal of achieving a 25 percent improvement in power density and 5 percent less friction, with a consequent improvement in fuel economy. Several subcontractors will assist in the project. The ATP funding enabled the formation of the joint venture; none of the partners could undertake this long-term research alone. If successfully developed and commercialized, the new technologies will lead to lighter, more efficient, more durable power transmission gears and other machine components, thereby offering consumers greater efficiency and reliability and reduced costs. Aerospace transmissions could be made more powerful, for example, and warranty and maintenance costs in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning compression industry could be reduced. Benefits to the economy, especially the auto industry, could exceed $6 billion annually.

For project information:

Jeff Hawkinson, (309) 675-4715
hawkinson_jeffrey_s@cat.com

Active Project Participants

• J.A. Woollam Co., Inc. (Lincoln, NE)
  [Original, Active Member]
  
• United Technologies Research Center (East Hartford, CT)
  [Original, Active Member]
  

ATP Project Manager

Richard Bartholomew, (301) 975-4786
richard.bartholomew@nist.gov