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US researchers are working on a coating for the moving parts of pumps that promises to reduce friction and increase efficiency.

Water or hydraulic pumps are used in all kinds of industrial and commercial applications, but friction between moving parts means that more energy is required by the system and the parts wear out over time.

Just a small increase in the efficiency of such systems could reduce US energy usage by around 31 trillion BTU (British thermal units) annually by 2030 – saving around $179 million a year, according to US government figures.

Bruce Cook, a researcher at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Ames Laboratory, is leading a four-year, $3 million project bringing together other research labs, universities and industrial partners to develop a coating that could lead to such an improvement in energy efficiency.

The project will be focusing on a boron-aluminium-magnesium ceramic alloy (AlMgB₁₄) nicknamed BAM. The researchers will be using a specialist technique called pulsed laser deposition to coat very thin layers of the alloy onto hydraulic pump vanes.

The researchers are also working with Eaton Corporation, which makes fluid power equipment, on a commercial-scale technique for applying the coating.

The same coating could also be used with cutting tools to reduce the amount of force needed to cut through a material, which could translate into a direct energy reduction.

For further information:
www.metcer.ameslab.gov/people/cook.html

Photo: AlMgB₁₄ coating on a steel substrate. The substrate is the mottled structure on the left-hand side of the photo and the coating is the thin, darker strip running along the edge of the steel.