MOTORSPORT
THE SURFACE
SURFACE CONDITION
Manufacturing a component - specifically a toleranced critical surface - gets honed, ground, or otherwise machined, leaving directional topography on a part surface. Based on the technique used, this topography can be visible to the eye or under magnification.
No matter how microscopic this texture may be, it will affect the part to part interaction, windage, wear and tribological properties of the components.
You can only expect your lubricant to do so much. The tolerancing of components is predicated on a lubrication wedge that is responsible for keeping the components from contacting each other and creating friction - causing heat - causing viscosity alterations - causing micro-pitting - causing spalling - causing failure.
The distance between components, defined by the lubrication wedge can be microns wide - necessitating surface roughnesses to be equally sized. If a ground surface has asperities (peaks) over the given wedge value, the parts will ultimately contact each other, propagating a micro-pit. An ASF processed component can resist this type of wear signifigantly better than a precision honed component.
BEFORE ASF
AFTER ASF
There are many other benefits to a superfinished or micropolished surface texture including friction reductions, gearbox temperature reductions, noise, and vibration attenuation, crack propagation reductions, power gains, and reliability increases.
THE PROCESS
WHAT IS "ISOTROPIC" ?
i·so·trop·ic īsəˈträpik,ˌīsəˈtrōpik/
adjective - PHYSICS
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(of an object or substance) having a physical property that has the same value when measured in different directions.
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(of a property or phenomenon) not varying in magnitude according to the direction of measurement.
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This industry buzzword has been gaining traction as of late - but it has been in the industry since the beginning.
This word refers to the resulting finish of a part after it has been processed through a vibratory finishing machine. These machines gently roll a combination of components, media, and compounds. This vibratory action randomly generates media and part rotations resulting in a non-directional and uniform finish that is unlike any other finishing method in the industry.