Cylinder Liners & Piston Rings

Machining and Finishing

Ever since its inception in 1960, the cylinder liner manufacturing activity at Cooper has
grown from strength to strength. Today, the company is one of the top three cylinder liner
manufacturers in the country, producing 2000 tons a month, and with expansion plans in the
pipeline. Thanks to our extensive research in the area, the centrifugally cast Cylinder Liners are
manufactured with a special alloy cast iron with selective elements. Basically a cylinder liner is a
hollow cylindrical shape which acts as the enclosure in which the combustion takes place. Of
course the word hollow does not employ that it is weak in strength for it is under the fluid
pressure due to combustion and hence must withstand the high level of hoop stress induced in it.

It provides good surface for the piston rings to slide along its length. Construction is done
either by centrifugal casting in case of smaller liners and sand casting in case of larger liners. The
inner surface of the cylinder liner is usually chrome plated to make it smooth but this smoothness
also has its drawback that it does not allow oil to spread out properly thus affecting liner
lubrication in a negative manner.

The raw material comprises of combination of Pig Iron, Mild Steel, some iron scrap
material and cast iron. The correct proportions have to be chosen for different vehicles
depending on properties required by their matching components and as specified by the original
equipment manufacturers. A small quantity is tested in a sample cup, for the Material
composition. The other impurities such as Sulphur and Phosphorus are controlled to the
permissible Levels. Slag material is removed before some
additives like Nickel, Molybdenum, Chromium; Copper etc. are
added in small quantities as recommended to develop desired
strength, hardness and surface finish in the final product.

Next, the molten metal is taken into ladles and poured

into rotating die machines where it is cast centrifugally. After
rough machining, every piece is thoroughly inspected for
casting defects or cracks and for sufficient material thickness,
wherever further machining is to be done. Then hardness is checked for each and every piece on
a Brinell hardness tester. Finally they are dipped into special anti-corrosion agents to enhance
shelf life and high workability.

Piston Rings
A piston ring is a split ring that fits into a groove on the outer diameter of a piston in
a reciprocating engine such as an internal combustion engine or steam engine.

The three main functions of piston rings in reciprocating engines are:

1. Sealing the combustion chamber so that there is minimal loss of gases to the crank case.
2. Improving heat transfer from the piston to the cylinder wall.

3. Regulating engine oil consumption by scraping oil from the cylinder walls back to the
sump.

The gap in the piston ring compresses to a few thousandths of an inch when inside the
cylinder bore. Piston rings are a major factor in identifying if an engine is two strokes or four
strokes. Three piston rings suggest that it is a four stroke engine while two piston rings suggest
that it is a two stroke engine. Most piston rings are made of a very hard and somewhat brittle cast
iron. When fitting new piston rings or breaking them in within an engine, the end gap is a crucial
measurement. In order that a ring may be fitted into the "grooves" of the piston, it is not
continuous but is broken at one point on its circumference.

The ring gap may be checked by putting the ring into the bore/liner (squared to bore) and
measuring with a feeler gauge. End gap should be within recommended limits for size of bore
and intended "load" of engine. Metals expand with a rise in temperature, so too small a gap may
result in overlapping or bending when used under hot running conditions (racing, heavy loads,
towing) and, even at normal temperatures, a small ring gap may lead to ring gap closure, ring
breakage, bore damage and possible seizure of the piston. Too large a gap may give unacceptable
compression and levels of blow-by gases or oil consumption. When being measured in a used
bore, it may indicate excessive bore wear or ring wear.

During engine assembly, a piston-ring compressor is used to evenly

squeeze the rings long enough to slide the piston into the cylinder.
 Rings are not a very expensive part, but fitting new ones is usually very costly. This is
because to fit them, the mechanic must essentially take the whole engine apart. Therefore the
labor costs are the major factor. Once going that far, one might as well correct many other
problems found inside - so fitting new rings is usually done as part of an entire engine
rebuild/reconditioning.

Production of cylinder liners and piston rings: -

Generally centrifugal casting process is most widely used for production of cylindrical
castings in which molten metal is poured at suitable temperature into rapidly rotating mould

Centrifugal casting
The centrifugal casting process consists of pouring the molten metal at a suitable
temperature into a rapidly rotating mould or die. It is essential that pouring temperature of
molten metal should be high enough to enable it to reach the farthest point in the mould before
solidification commence. The axis of rotation of mould may be horizontal, vertical or slightly
inclined. The centrifugal force imparted to molten metal enables it to be picked up and held in
contact with the rotating mould. The mould is allowed to rotate till the casting is completely
solidified. Thus the outer shape of casting takes the shape of the inside of the mould and the bore
of casting is truly circular and concentric with axis of rotation. The thickness of casting is
determined by the quantity of molten metal poured, and the length by the length of mould
between two end plates.

In centrifugal casting, a permanent mold is rotated continuously about its axis at high
speeds (300 to 3000 rpm) as the molten metal is poured. The molten metal is centrifugally
thrown towards the inside mold wall, where it solidifies after cooling. The casting is usually a
fine-grained casting with a very fine-grained outer diameter, owing to chilling against the mould
surface. Impurities and inclusions are thrown to the surface of the inside diameter, which can be
machined away.

Casting machines may be either horizontal or vertical-axis Horizontal axis machines are

preferred for long, thin cylinders, vertical machines for rings.
 Most castings are solidified from the outside first. This may be used to
encourage directional solidification of the casting, and thus give useful metallurgical properties
to it. Often the inner and outer layers are discarded and only the intermediary columnar zone is
used.

Centrifugal casting was the invention of Alfred Krupp, who used it to manufacture cast
steel tyres for railway wheels in 1852.

Types of centrifugal casting:-

 True centrifugal casting
 Semi centrifugal casting
 Centrifuge (or) pressure casting
 Basically cylinder liners and piston rings are produced by true centrifugal casting.

True Centrifugal Casting

No core is used in this method; essentially all of the heat is extracted from the molten
metal through the outer mould wall. The poor thermal conductivity of the air in contact with the
internal diameter results in little heat loss from this direction. Thus, perfect directional
solidification is obtained from outer surface to inner one and grain growth is typically columnar.
Because of favorable thermal gradients, in addition to the outward centrifugal force acting upon
the molten metal, each successive increment of metal to solidify is fed by the residual liquid
metal in contact with it, until solidification is complete. Under proper conditions, shrinkage
porosity is non-existent.
Process Involved In Production
(a) Molten metal preparation
(b) Casting
(c) Machining
(d) Inspection

Molten Metal preparation

Molten metal is prepared by using electric induction furnace. The electric induction
furnace is a type of melting furnace that uses electric currents to melt metal. Induction furnaces
are ideal for melting and alloying a wide variety of metals with minimum melt losses, however,
little refining of the metal is possible.

Material: pig iron, cast iron, iron scrap

Electromagnetic Induction Furnace

An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is applied by induction
heating of metal. Induction furnace capacities range from less than one kilogram to one hundred
tonnes capacity and are used to melt iron and steel, copper, aluminium and precious metals.
 The advantage of the induction furnace is a clean, energy-efficient and well-controllable
melting process compared to most other means of metal melting. Most modern foundries use this
type of furnace, and now also more iron foundries are replacing cupolas with induction furnaces
to melt cast iron, as the former emit lots of dust and other pollutants.

Since no arc or combustion is used, the temperature of the material is no higher than
required to melt it; this can prevent loss of valuable alloying elements. The one major drawback
to induction furnace usage in a foundry is the lack of refining capacity; charge materials must be
clean of oxidation products and of a known composition and some alloying elements may be lost
due to oxidation (and must be re-added to the melt). An induction furnace consists of a
nonconductive crucible holding the charge of metal to be melted, surrounded by a coil of copper
wire.

A powerful alternating current flows through the wire. The coil creates a rapidly

reversing magnetic field that penetrates the metal. The magnetic field induces eddy currents,
circular electric currents, inside the metal, by electromagnetic induction. The eddy currents,
flowing through the electrical resistance of the bulk metal, heat it by Joule heating.

In ferromagnetic materials like iron, the material may also be heated by magnetic

hysteresis, the reversal of the molecular magnetic dipoles in the metal. Once melted, the eddy
currents cause vigorous stirring of the melt, assuring good mixing. An advantage of induction
heating is that the heat is generated within the furnace's charge itself rather than applied by a
burning fuel or other external heat source, which can be important in applications where
contamination is an issue.

Operating frequencies range from utility frequency (50 or 60 Hz) to 400 kHz or higher,

usually depending on the material being melted, the capacity (volume) of the furnace and the
melting speed required. Generally, the smaller the volume of the melts, the higher the frequency
of the furnace used; this is due to the skin depth which is a measure of the distance an alternating
current can penetrate beneath the surface of a conductor. For the same conductivity, the higher
frequencies have a shallow skin depth—that is less penetration into the melt. Lower frequencies
can generate stirring or turbulence in the metal.
 A preheated, one-tonne furnace melting iron can melt cold charge to tapping readiness
within an hour. Power supplies range from 10 kW to 42 MW, with melt sizes of 20 kg to
65 tonnes of metal respectively. An operating induction furnace usually emits a humor whine
(due to fluctuating magnetic forces and magnetostriction), the pitch of which can be used by
operators to identify whether the furnace is operating correctly or at what power level.

FEATURES OF INDUCTION FURNACE

An electric induction furnace requires an electric coil to produce the charge. This heating
coil is eventually replaced. The crucible in which the metal is placed is made of stronger
materials that can resist the required heat, and the electric coil itself cooled by a water system so
that it does not overheat or melt.
The induction furnace can range in size, from a small furnace used for very precise alloys
only about a kilogram in weight to a much larger furnaces made to mass produce clean metal for
many different applications. The advantage of the induction furnace is a clean, energy-efficient
and well-controllable melting process compared to most other means of metal melting. Foundries
use this type of furnace and now also more iron foundries are replacing cupolas with induction
furnaces to melt cast iron, as the former emit lots of dust and other pollutants. Induction furnace
capacities range from less than one kilogram to one hundred tonnes capacity, and are used to
melt iron and steel, copper, aluminium, and precious metals.
 The one major drawback to induction furnace usage in a foundry is the lack of refining
capacity; charge materials must be clean of oxidation products and of a known composition, and
some alloying elements may be lost due to oxidation (and must be re-added to the melt).

Casting Preparation by True Centrifugal Process

Machining
Machining Process Description : 

The casting are shot blasted and are sent to the machine shop for machining operation,
the first operation is the roughing operation where casting skin is removed, this operations is
performed on a custom designed vertical high speed turning cum boring machine. The
machined liner is then turned on a CNC Turning Centre where all outer diameter and lengths are
maintained, for Dry liners the next sequence of operations would be Rough Grinding, fine
boring, Rough honing followed by Plateau honing and Finish grinding whereas for Wet Liners
after CNC turning, fine boring followed by rough honing, fine CNC turning and plateau honing
would be performed. 

Honing has been and will remain to be in the foreseeable future the only process
available that could provide both the required surface roughness and the cross-hatching in
cylinder liners. The cross-hatching lay direction is needed to provide means for retaining
lubricants. 

A cylinder liner has fairly intricate surface requirements due to its complicated functions.
It has to provide adequate surface roughness to resist wear and to store and retain lubricants
during high temperatures, in addition to liner hardness, geometric dimensioning and tolerance to
ensure other proper functions.

Fine Boring

Boring is the process which gives the final look of inner diameter. We perform boring
operation on vertical machining center. This is fully computerized control machine. We also use
special purpose boring machine which maintains dimension accuracy, taper, ovality and surface
finish.
Outer Diameter Turning

It perform outer diameter of liner on Lathe machine, which is manually operated

machine, gives high accuracy in dimensional parameters, surface roughness parameters and
geometrical parameters. A main benefit of OD CNC Turing is to minimize cycle time,
repeatability of quality and consistency product.

Grinding and Stage Inspection

Grinding is the process where super surface finish can be maintained on products. We
have two type of grinding process center less grinding and cylindrical grinding.
Grinding controls dimensional parameters, surface parameters and geometrical parameters. 
Honing

Honing is the process where required hex pattern can be maintained in finish inner
diameter. We use Plato honing process. The main benefits of Plato honing process is to achieve
required quality parameters like surface finish
THE HIGH PRESSURE DIE CASTING PROCESS

HPDC is an efficient componentry manufacturing method for the production of various

product forms with extremely quick casting possibilities coupled with a high pressure injection
process.

The four main metal groups used with this technology are aluminum, zinc, magnesium and
copper-base alloys.

High pressure die casting (HPDC) is a high volume manufacturing process for
components of different sizes and shapes and there are some specifics of the process which can
be discussed. The casting of a molten alloy into a mold is complete within several milliseconds.
A significant quenching effect with high production rates is therefore possible. The application
of high-pressure enables good contact between molten alloy and die wall that enables: the
increase in cooling rate, the increase in heat flow and heat transfer coefficient at the die-melt
interface as well as the formation of a net shape casting.

Casting defects such as shrink holes which generate by the shrinkage during solidification
are reduced. Components with complicated shapes are produced directly from a liquid state even
for a molten alloy with high viscosity. By taking these facts into account, it is expected that
much larger shapes and dimensions can be formed in various alloy systems by the high pressure
die casting process. The characteristics of the HPDC process, are high velocity of melt during
filling the die and high solidification rate of the component. Such circumstances demands a more
sophisticated approach to the study of phenomena during the HPDC process.

HPDC is a fully automatic, large volume, high productivity process for the production of
complex, thin walled near net shape castings, with part weights ranging from a few grams to
more than 15kg. It has traditionally been utilized in the production of housings etc., but this has
changed. Presently, feasible products are automotive front end structures and instrument panels
in magnesium alloys and B-pillars in aluminum alloys.

The four principal metals, with different alloy compositions, that are commonly hot- or
cold chamber die cast are aluminum, zinc, magnesium and copper-base alloys. The injection
system in the hot chamber machines is immersed into the melt and the pressure is therefore
limited. The system also degrades quickly if exposed to aluminum. In the cold chamber process,
the metal reservoir is separated from the injection system. The metal is filled into a steel shot
sleeve, as shown in Figure 1, (magnesium is automatically metered). The shot sleeve is typically
200-300°C.

Figure 1: Illustration of high pressure die casting

A production cycle in HPDC consists of:

1. Metering of metal into the shot sleeve

2. Plunger movement
3. Rapid die filling. The steel die, typically 200-300°C, dissipates the latent heat
4. During solidification the casting is pressurized hydraulically by the plunger to feed the
solidification shrinkage. Locking forces up to 4000 tons are commercially available to
withstand the large pressures
5. The die is opened
6. The casting is then ejected. The hydraulic energy is provided by a computerized system
that permits control of metal position, velocity and plunger acceleration to optimize the
flow and the pressure during filling and solidification.

The die cavity may be evacuated to reduce air entrapment during die filling, and high
integrity die castings can therefore be produced by utilizing vacuum systems. Alternatively semi-
solid metalworking (SSM) can be used to reduce turbulence. A short die filling time and thin
walls results in high cooling rates, (typically 100-1000Ks-1). This promotes a fine grain size
which provides decent mechanical properties.

However, the properties can be improved by intimate interrelationship between product and
process design through amended metal handling, accurate process control, and optimized runner
and die design. The capacity of the injection system is described by the so called P-Q2 diagram
which is supplied with the HPDC machine. It has been deduced that the pressure, P, is
proportional to the square of the flow rate, Q.

The die characteristics can be described by the equation P=(kdie/Ga)Q2. The working
conditions are determined from the intersection of the die line with the machine line in the P-Q2
diagram. Furthermore, suitable timing, good dimensional stability and correct assessment of the
fluid and heat flow are prerequisites for better castings. Apparently minor factors such as the
amount of lubrication, its composition and application procedures can turn out to be of utmost
importance for the final casting characteristics.

LOW PRESSURE DIE CASTING (COUNTER-PRESSURE CASTING)

Low pressure air is introduced into a sealed furnace holding a tank of molten metal. The
metal feeds up slowly through a riser tube and into the die cavity. Once the casting has solidified
in the die, air pressure is released, allowing any residue molten metal still in the riser to fall back
into the tank for recycling. When cooled, the casting is removed.
Materials:

1. Dies are usually grey cast iron, although for long production runs, alloy cast iron or tool
steel are used.

2. Process uses a wide range of aluminium alloys, nearly all of which contain silicon to
improve fluidity. Relatively high concentrations of impurities can be tolerated and are
even desirable, since they help to minimise "sticking” and improve the hot strength of
castings.

3. Due to non-equilibrium cooling, alloys containing copper “age” after casting, causing a

change in dimensions, so if dimensional stability is important a “stabilising” heat
treatment is required, which also relieves stresses.

Manufacture:
1. Metal is displaced from the furnace and forced up the riser tube using air at 20–100 kN
m-2, or by evacuation of the mould. “Counter-pressure die casting” is a variation in
which the mould is filled by having a slight pressure differential produced by controlled
leakage from the mould. This slow, smooth and progressive filling of the die cavity
reduces metal turbulence and gives temperature gradients which are favourable to
feeding, thus producing sound, high-quality castings.
2. Riser tubes are usually cast iron and require regular cleaning and renewal of the mould
coating to prevent “sticking” and freezing of the molten metal. Refractory riser tubes
can be used and, although their initial cost is high, they can last up to a year and only
need cleaning once every 2 weeks. This cleaning can be carried out hot, thus reducing
the loss in production time.
3. Dies are usually cooled between castings, using air or water sprays, and have die-
coatings similar to those used for gravity die casting.
4. Sand or shell cores can be used in the dies to produce internal cavities, but usually
require a refractory coating to prevent metal penetration under pressure.
5. Castings have no runners or feeders in the true sense, and hence high yields (80–90%)
and low remelt ratios are obtained which, coupled with reduced fettling, gives a
high energy saving.
6. Casting machines are expensive, come in a wide variety of designs, and take up more
floor space than gravity die casting machines.
7. Automatic cycling and casting removal are possible, enabling an unskilled operator to
cope with more than one machine, thus giving a 10–20% increase in production rate.
8. Production rates depend largely on size and complexity of castings, but are similar to
gravity die casting and less than high pressure die casting.
9. Least expensive casting process for relatively high production runs, although using
aluminium alloy dies production runs of 100 castings can be economical with alloys of
zinc and aluminium.
10. Typical products include aluminium alloy wheels, cylinder blocks, guttering and beer
barrels.