Tribology, Lubrication and Coating Laboratory (TLCL)
Personnel
Pranesh B. Aswath, Ph.D. Professor and Graduate Advisor
Ronald L. Elsenbaumer. Ph. D. Professor and VP of Research
Funding
Platinum Research Organization (TX)
Texas Higher Education Coordination Board
Consultant:
Dr. Harold Shaub
• Graduate students
Mr. Ramoun Mourhatch (Ph. D.)
Mr. Anuradha Somayaji (Ph. D.)
Mr. BoHoon Kim (Ph. D.)
Mr. Xin Chen (Ph. D.)
• Undergraduate students
Mr. Joonas Ponkala (MAE)
Mr. Abraham Laws (MAE) Dr. Aswath with students in TLCL
• Alumni of Group
Dr. Zahedul Hug (Eaton Corp)
Dr. Gabi Nehme (Asst. Prof. Balamad University)
Mr. Sunit Munot (Ind. Business)
Mr. Krupal Patel (NCH Corp)
Ms. Kajal Parekh (Motorola)
Mr. Hiroshi Ito (Mitsubishi Corp)
Research Activities
TLCL was established over 6 years ago and has been funded by grants totaling over $750,000 by Platinum Research Organization and The Texas Higher Education Coordination Board. There have been several major initiatives within TLCL that include (i) Development of High performance low phosphorous engine oils: The goal of the project has been to develop engine oils that are low in phosphorous and yet maintain their high anti wear performance. The outcome of the project would result in better fuel economy and lower emissions (ii) Development of high performance universal greases: The goal of this project has been to develop low MoS2 greases that have improved low load wear performance while still retaining its extreme load carrying capacity (iii) Development of conformal large area fluorinated hydrocarbon coatings: A new method for coating large areas with PTFE using a catalyst to enhance the deposition of PTFE at low temperatures was developed. Applications include: low friction coatings for anti-icing applications, anti-corrosion coatings, low friction and wear coatings for MEMS applications. Results developed from ongoing research has resulted in five patent applications with the US Patent office and over 10 publications.
Facilities
• Tribology Testing
- Plint Ball on Cylinder Test Setup
- Instrumented In house developed Ball on Cylnder tester for Lubrication Testing
- Instrumented Ring on Block and Ring on Cylinder tester for Grease testing
- Instrumented High Frequency Reciprocating Rig
• Processing
- High speed homogenized for colloidal processing
- Low speed high torque mixer to create dispersions
• Characterization
- MAHR Perthometer stylus profilometer
- Leco Microhardness tester
- Perkin Elmer DSC-7, TGA-7 Thermal analysis system.
- Steromciroscope with high resolution camera.
Selected Publications
A TEM Studies of Anti-Wear Films/wear particles generated under boundary condition lubrication, Zahedul Huq, Pranesh B. Aswath and R.L. Elsenbaumer, Tribology International, 40(1), 111-116 (2007).
Thermal Degradation Behavior of Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphate in Presence of Catalyst and Detergents in Neutral Oil, Zahedul Huq, Xin Chen, Pranesh Aswath and R. L. Elsenbaumer, Tribology Letters 19(2) (2005).
Engine Oil Additive, Hal Shaub, Pranesh Aswath and Zahedul Huq, U.S. Patent Number 7,074,745 (2006).
A multitechnique study of the tribological behavior and the tribofilms generated from fluorinated thiophosphate compounds in comparison to normal ZDDP, Ramoun Mourhatch, Kajal Parekh and Pranesh Aswath, STLE/ASME International Joint Tribology Conference, October 22-25, 2006, San Antonio, TX. Paper IJTC2006-12137.
Synthesis of Fluorinated ZDDP Compounds, Kajal Parekh and Pranesh Aswath, STLE/ASME International Joint Tribology Conference, October 22-25, 2006, San Antonio, TX. Paper IJTC2006-12053.